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RUSTY 

THE ADVENTURES OF A 
LITTLE DOG 







KusTY LAllN('Hi-:i) HKS I.ITTLE BODY THROUGH THE AIR. 

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RUSTY 

THE ADVENTURES OF A 
LITTLE DOG 


By NASON H. ARNOLD 

" >/ 


Illustrated by 

GRISWOLD TYNG 



BOSTON 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 





Copyright, 1930, 

By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.' 


AU Rights Reserved 
Rusty 



Printed in U. S. A. 


/ 

SEP iu I93p/ 

©CU 27e00ti ^ 



To 

Harriet and Jean 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

I. 

Rusty’s New Home . 

• 

9 

II. 

Rusty’s New Mistress 

• 

25 

III. 

Rusty and Betty 

• 

43 

IV. 

Rusty Meets Mittens 

• 

59 

V. 

Rusty Meets Rex 

• 

71 

VI. 

Rusty Makes Some Rules 

• 

86 

VII. 

Rusty in Mischief 

• 

100 

VIII. 

Rusty’s Family Cares 

• 

114 

IX. 

Rusty Goes to Camp 

• 

130 

X. 

Rusty Learns Two Lessons 

• 

147 

XI. 

Rusty’s Busy Day 

• 

167 

XII. 

Rusty Plays Nurse . 

• 

187 

XIII. 

Rusty Goes Fishing . 

• 

206 

XIV. 

Rusty to the Rescue 

# 

223 

XV. 

Rusty Goes to School 

• 

239 

XVI. 

Rusty’s Christmas 

• 

257 


7 



RUSTY 

THE ADVENTURES OF A LITTLE DOG 



CHAPTER I 


rusty’s new home 

Rusty’s master picked him up and put 
him on the big white bed. “ Dead dog,” 
he said. 

Rusty lay down because he had been 

taught to do so and keep quiet when he 

9 






























10 RUSTY 

heard those words. But why he had been 
placed on the bed, a forbidden place, was 
a puzzle. 

The whole morning had been full of 
surprises. His master had washed and 
dried him with great care. After that, 
every hair had been combed and brushed 
until no amount of shaking made that little 
black spaniel feel comfortable. It wasn’t 
the first time he had been washed and 
brushed, but never before had he had a 
big yellow bow tied to his collar! And 
never before had he been put on the bed. 

With all these things to wonder about. 
Rusty kept very still and watched his 
master as he washed his own face and 
hands and combed his hair. That done, 
he picked Rusty up in his arms and told 
him they were going to make a visit. 

“ I’m going to make him buy you, for 
I can’t bother with you any more,” he said. 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 11 

Rusty wriggled to get down and run. 
He tried to lick his master’s face to tell 
him that he would be good and trot right 
behind him, but he was told to “ be still.” 
It was spring, and everything smelled so 
lovely, and it was nice and muddy and— 
there was a cat! 

How Rusty did wriggle and whine and 
whimper. Not that he wanted to hurt 
that cat, but he did like to bark two or 
three times in a sharp voice and run after 
a cat—^if the cat would run. Of course, 
some cats just stood still and there was no 
fun with them. But he was sure this one 
would run if he could only get down. He 
wriggled harder than ever, but his master 
just held him tighter with one arm and 
with the other hand opened a door and 
walked into a big room. 

This was a place Rusty had never seen 
before. And there was another room in 


12 


RUSTY 


back with somebody in it, for a voice from 
in back called, “ Come right in.’’ 

That’s what Rusty wanted to do more 
than anything else just then. He liked 
that voice and, besides, he wanted to see 
what was there. He hadn’t had a chance 
all the morning to run about and sniff. 

And now his master was putting him 
down and never saying a word. He 
fussed with the big bow while he held 
Rusty. Of all things, to put a big bow 
on a dog! 

“ Go along and find him,” said his mas¬ 
ter. 

“ Yip. Yip.” Just two little joyous 
barks and he threw out his little front legs 
and started off with his hind legs follow¬ 
ing right along, and behind them was his 
stubby tail with its long, silky hairs wav¬ 
ing from side to side. 

So Rusty trotted right into that back 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 18 

room. Things smelled nice in there. No 
cabbage cooking, nor onions. Those were 
two things Rusty could not bear to smell, 
and they were not in this room he knew 
as he turned his nose in every direction 
while his snapping eyes seemed to see 
everything at once. 

This man was a much nicer-looking man 
than his master. He had pushed his chair 
back from his desk and had been looking 
towards the door expecting to see Rusty’s 
master. He was surprised to see a little 
dog instead of a man. But he recovered 
quickly. 

'‘Why, hello! Who are you?” he 
asked, as Rusty stopped short; that is, all 
of him stopped but his tail. No little 
black spaniel, happy at having been put 
down to run, could stop a tail from almost 
snapping right off when any one spoke 
to him like that. 


14 RUSTY 

He trotted two or three steps nearer 
and stopped again. His master didn’t 
let him jump into his lap. He wondered 
if this man would be like that. Rusty 
was sure that he looked like a man who 
would like to have a little dog jump into 
his lap and cuddle down. But a puppy 
couldn’t be just sure at first. Of course 
he had wanted to run and play, even to 
chase that cat, but this was different. He 
could chase a cat at any time, so if this 
man really wanted a little dog to snuggle 
down and pretend to catch forty winks of 
sleep. Rusty was willing. 

He looked around at the door. But his 
master must have forgotten him. He 
hadn’t even come to the door and told him 
to come back and behave himself! Rusty 
could not understand that at all. 

So he looked back at this new man and 
his tail said, “ If you were to let me up 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 15 


in your lap, we should be regular pals in 
just one minute.” 

And right then Rusty found that this 
new man knew dog language, because 
Rusty hadn’t finished spelling the words 
with his tail when the man said: 

“ All right. Come on up if you wish 
to.” 

Such an invitation had not come to 
Rusty in all his young life. He never 
had heard the words. But he knew what 
had been said. Any friendly little dog 
would have known. 

“ Yip.” One leap and he was there. 
One kiss for a “ thank you,” two quick 
turns around, and then a flop down hard 
with a little grunt. It was easy to tell 
that this man liked little dogs with long 
silky ears, because the first thing he did 
was to reach down and pick up the one 
he could see, and pull it ever so'gently. 


16 RUSTY 

When he did it again and again, Rusty 
snuggled down closer with a happy little 
sigh while his tail banged away on the 
man’s leg to tell him that he could keep 
pulling that ear all he wanted to. What 
more could a small dog do? 

Rusty opened one eye when he heard 
the voice he had been taught to obey, to 
see whether his master were coming for 
him. He saw him standing in the door 
and smiling. Rusty couldn’t remember 
that he had ever seen him smile before. 
Perhaps, after all, he liked to have little 
dogs jump into some laps if not in his 
own. 

With the gentle stroking of his ear. 
Rusty found it a hard struggle to keep 
awake. His eyes would not stay open 
even with his master standing there. The 
men were talking about something that he 
couldn’t understand, but he didn’t care 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 17 

about that so long as he could remain 
where he was. 

When a minute or two later the man 
slid his chair towards his desk, Rusty tried 
to sit up. A friendly but firm hand held 
him down. 

“ Stay right where you are, old man,” 
he was told. “ You’re all right.” The 
hand patted him. So Rusty turned 
around the other way and settled down 
again. 

But he had no sooner got settled than 
his master’s voice said: “ Good-bye, Rusty. 
Be a good dog, and when you get to your 
new home do all the tricks I have taught 
you.” 

His master went out. Rusty sat up in 
a hurry, listening to know if he were to 
follow. But he heard no call. He looked 
up into the face of his new friend, his 
eyes questioning, his tail slowly asking 


18 RUSTY 

what he should do. It was strange how 
this new man knew what a dog’s tail said! 

“You stay where you are, Rusty. 
You’re mine now, and if Janet doesn’t 
insist bn keeping you with her all the time, 
this is where you are going to be every 
day. Do you think you will like it? ” 

Rusty’s two front paws were planted 
squarely on the man’s chest as he looked 
him straight in the eye. His tail said: 
“ If you mean that, I’m going to kiss you. 
I can tell if you really mean it by looking 
you in the eye.” 

In those eyes Rusty saw good nature 
and love of small dogs which brought a 
quick, very moist kiss. He intended to 
give him several more, that his new master 
might know how much the little dog loved 
him, but he was told that one was enough, 
as a hand began fumbling at the big yellow 
bow. 



RUSTY’S NEW HOME 19 

“ We’ll get this thing off so we can both 
feel better,” he said. “ Then you get 
down and look around a few minutes while 
I finish some work I must do. After that, 
if you don’t bother me, we’ll take a ride 
home and see what the folks say about 
you.” 

The great big ribbon was dropped into 
a big basket on the floor at the side of the 
desk. Rusty looked up to be sure that 
he was not expected to do anything about 
it. He knew that he had been bothered 
with it for the last time when this new 
master called to a man in the big front 
office to be sure that the outer door was 
closed, so ‘‘ my new dog will not get out 
until we come to know each other a little 
better.” 

Rusty had no desire to go out. He 
understood his new master very well now. 
Besides, he hadn’t had a minute to smell 


20 


RUSTY 


and see everything in his office and in the 
big front one. If he was to live there, he 
had lots to do before he could spare time 
to go out. He jumped down and trotted 
into the front room. 

The man there smiled at him, and said 
that he was such a little fellow he must 
look out or Rex would eat him for break¬ 
fast. Rusty sat down quickly and looked 
up at him to see if that were a joke. He 
decided that it was, because this man was 
friendly, for he reached down and patted 
his head. That wasn’t so nice as having 
an ear pulled, but he guessed they could 
get along all right, even if he did have to 
stand an occasional pat. 

Having settled that matter in his, own 
mind. Rusty spent the next ten minutes 
looking into every comer and even under 
the big safe. That was a nice place to 
know about if a big dog should chase him. 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 21 

Only a little dog could crawl under that 
safe. 

With all the comers and chairs looked 
over, Rusty found that by standing tip¬ 
toe on his hind legs and clinging to the 
window-sill with his front paws he could 
see people moving on the sidewalk. He 
was busily watching for his old master 
when he heard a new whistle. 

Just three notes with the middle one 
high and the others low. “ That’s for 
you, Rusty,” said his master, coming into 
the big office from his room. “ Remem¬ 
ber it after this. Come on now, and we’ll 
drive home and see what is going to 
happen. I have an idea that you are not 
going to spend very much time here with 
me.” 

Tucking him under one arm, his new 
master went out into a yard where there 
was a big blue automobile. His master 


22 RUSTY 

got in and put Rusty on the seat beside 
him. 

“ Ever ride before, Rusty? You don’t 
act as if you had done so, but we will try, 
and see if you like it.” 

Rusty was very sure that he should, for 
already it was very exciting with so much 
more to see from away up on the seat. 
His master moved a stick and there was a 
noise. Rusty didn’t quite know what that 
meant, so he gave one “ yip ” to show his 
master that he could help in the making 
of noise. 

Then the car began to move. Rusty 
stood up. If one little bark had made 
that happen, surely a few more would 
make still more things happen, so he 
yipped and yipped. 

“ It’s all right to help. Rusty,” said his 
master with a laugh as he put one hand 
on the little dog’s collar. “ But in the 


RUSTY’S NEW HOME 23 

best families people keep their seats while 
riding, and don’t drive too fast. You’ve 
got us started, so sit down and be quiet 
and enjoy yourself.” 

That was too long a speech for Rusty 
to understand, but he knew that he hadn’t 
done anything very wrong, because the 
tone of his master’s voice was just what it 
always had been. A big dog was trot¬ 
ting along, and Rusty stuck his head out 
of the window and told him in dog talk to 
hurry and get out of the way of dogs that 
ride in automobiles. The big dog turned 
and looked at him as he dodged out of the 
street, and Rusty had to give him two 
jeering yips as he leaned as far as his 
master would let him out of the window 
and looked back at the other dog. 

And while he was doing that the auto¬ 
mobile stopped! Rusty whirled around to 
see what had happened. 


24 


RUSTY 


“ Here we are, Rusty. Here’s your 
home. Now we will see what they think 
about you. If they don’t want you, I’ll 
drive you right back and you’ll be with 
me every day. But if they do want you, 
I’m afraid I shall see you only when I am 
home.” 

Rusty jumped up and gave his master 
a kiss. He just hoped “ they ” would not 
like him very much, because the office and 
his master and riding in an automobile 
were just what Rusty thought he loved 
above everything else. 



CHAPTER II 


rusty’s new mistress 

Rusty’s new master, Mr. Arthur Ab¬ 
bott, whistled a gay little tune and 
watched the front door of the house be¬ 
fore which he had stopped the automobile. 
From somewhere in the house. Rusty and 
his master heard some one call, “ Coming.” 
Rusty was excited because he was to 

meet some new person. It was such a 

25 







26 


RUSTY 


long time before the door opened that 
Rusty could not sit still. He got as close 
to the edge of the seat as he could, his fore 
feet on the edge of the door and his tail 
wagging very slowly. 

At last the door opened, and there was 
the prettiest lady Rusty had ever seen. 
Dressed all in white, she was slim and 
smiling, and any little dog would have 
known that she was happy. 

“ Oh, you darling! ” she cried, putting 
out her arms and hurrying down the steps 
towards the automobile. 

“ See him sit up, Arthur! ” 

‘‘ Sit up? ” thought Rusty. “ I’m not 
sitting up. I’m sitting down! ” Then he 
remembered what his firsts master had 
taught him to do when he heard “ sit up.” 
Soup he went! 

It was hard to sit up and wag his tail 
hard and fast and keep from jumping 


RUSTY^S NEW MISTRESS 27 


right into the lady’s arms before she got 
near him. She was hurrying, and when 
she was almost to the machine he heard her 
say in a little cuddling tone, ‘‘ Come to 
me.” Rusty put all his strength into one 
wild jump. For a few seconds he and the 
lady had a lively time, because she had not 
expected him to jump. But she finally 
got him cuddled in her arms, and snuggled 
her cheek down where he could kiss her 
again and again. 

“ It looks to me,” said Mr. Abbott, “ as 
if I had lost my dog. I bought him only 
an hour ago, and I told him that if you 
didn’t like him, he could spend his time 
at the office with me. I just gave him a 
ride up here to see whether you would let 
me keep him.” 

Mr. Abbott’s eyes twinkled as the lady 
backed away from the automobile so he 
couldn’t reach the little dog. 


28 


RUSTY 


“ You knew you couldn’t keep him after 
I saw him. What’s his name?—Rusty? 
—That’s a funny name for a shiny black 
dog. Oh, I see. Just one little rusty 
spot! Well, I don’t care about the name 
so long as I have him, dear,” she said. 
“You may go back to your old office now, 
and Rusty and I will get acquainted. 
Does he know any tricks? How old is he? 
What shall I feed him? ” 

“Wait a minute,” said his master. 
“ One question at a time. Sneeze! ” 
Rusty wasn’t quite sure that it was the 
proper thing to sneeze while in a lady’s 
arms so he looked up at her to see if she 
thought it would be all right. She was 
smiling at him, and when Arthur Abbott 
told him once more to sneeze. Rusty shut 
both eyes and sneezed the best sneeze he 
ever had sneezed. 

How his new mistress did jump and 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 29 

laugh! “ He almost sneezed himself out 

of my arms,” she cried. 

But Rusty wanted them to know that 
he was perfectly willing to sneeze at any 
time. It was no trouble to show off what 
he knew. So he sneezed again, and was 
getting ready to give even a harder sneeze 
than the first ones when Mrs. Abbott 
stopped it by taking him by the nose, and 
laughed. 

‘‘ The man I bought him of said he 
would sneeze, and sit up, and play dead, 
and roll over, and say his prayers, but he 
didn’t tell me that he was liable to keep 
right on sneezing,” said his master with a 
broad grin. 

“Well, Janet, I’ve got to be getting 
back to the office, so give me Rusty and 
I’ll be going.” 

“ I shall not. You have lost Rusty. 
He’s mine, and he stays right here at home 


30 RUSTY 

with me. You know you bought him for 
me. Didn’t you, Arthur, dear? ” 

Her husband just laughed and took 
hold of the stick that made the car go. 
Rusty wriggled a little when he saw him 
do that. He wanted to go, too. Then 
he thought it would be nice to see what 
was inside the house. So when the auto¬ 
mobile started and his mistress called 
“ Good-bye,” Rusty barked two or three 
“ Good-byes ” of his own and Mr. Abbott 
laughed and told him he could go some 
other time. 

As his mistress walked towards the 
house. Rusty found that she knew how 
nice it was for a little black spaniel to have 
one of his ears pulled just a little—a very 
little. 

“My,” she said, “how clean you are! 
You must have had a bath. And Arthur 
carried you to the car, didn’t he? ” 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 81 

“ Yip,” said Rusty. 

And so, laughing at him for answering 
her, Janet Abbott opened the door to his 
new home and put him down on the floor 
very gently. 

“ Go anywhere you like, and see if you 
will like this for your new home,” she told 
him. 

But Rusty hadn’t waited to be told. No 
little dog does. The first thing he wants 
to do is to look and smell everywhere and 
learn for himself that there is nothing to 
hurt him. 

Never before had Rusty been on 
polished floors or on rugs that slipped and 
slid when he tried to stop and turn 
quickly. When Mrs. Abbott put him 
down, he started to go upstairs, but he 
decided it would be better to see what was 
downstairs first, so he turned and ran 

into the big room, his nose close to the 


82 RUSTY 

floor. He learned that no other dog had 
been there. 

Whoa! What was that? A cat smell! 
He tried to stop quickly, but the rug went 
right along when he dug his claws in. 
That frightened him, and he scratched and 
scrambled hard, but the rug just wrinkled 
up and kept going. 

When he at last got off from it and on 
the slippery floor, he tried to race back to 
where he had caught that smell of a cat. 
His feet slipped and slid, and one went 
this way, and another that way, until he 
got tired and discouraged. When he 
stopped trying so hard, he was able to get 
along towards that smell. 

“ That’s right,” said his mistress, wiping 
her eyes because she had been laughing so 
heartily, “ slow up. You can’t be in such 
a hurry on these floors and rugs. Rusty.” 

He looked up at her, because he didn’t 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 88 

quite know what she had said. She 
stooped down and held one hand towards 
him and he scrambled to her. She took 
him by the collar and pulled one ear gently 
and rubbed his head and told him again 
not to be frightened but to go more slowly 
and he would get along all right. But it 
was a long time before Rusty learned that 
he could not hurry in turning corners on 
those floors. Even after many years, 
when he was in a very special hurry he 
would forget, and his feet would slide out 
from under him and he would get a thump 
that sometimes made his head ache. Then 
he would remember. 

His mistress let him go again, and he 
went hunting for that smell. He found 
that it led him right to a great big chair 
near the fireplace. He stood up and 
looked and smelled in the chair. Then he 
barked ever so quietly, just as a warning 


34 RUSTY 

to that cat that she had better keep out 
of his way or be ready to run. 

‘‘ Yes,” said his mistress, “ Mittens has 
been sleeping there, and you must learn to 
share things with her. She is a very nice, 
clean kitty and you are a very nice, very 
clean doggie, and we are all going to be 
very nice to you, so you two pets must 
learn to love each other.” 

But Rusty did not pay any attention to 
that long speech. He couldn’t understand 
it, anyway, so he kept right on following 
the scent of Mittens. It went right to a 
closed door and stopped. Rusty didn’t 
know that the door had been open when 
Mittens had gone to it, so he followed the 
walls all around the room trying to find 
it again. 

His mistress stood and watched him 
until he had been all around. Then she 
went into the room they had first entered. 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 35 


and walked along the hall. Rusty raced 
ahead until he could not go any farther. 
But Mrs. Abbott opened a door into a 
large room in which was a big table and 
—yes, just a faint scent of something good 
to eat. His mistress could not smell it, 
but a dog with as sharp a nose as Rusty 
had could not help sniffing. He stopped 
short and raised his head and sniffed. 

‘‘Are you hungry so soon? ” she asked. 
“ Let’s go into the kitchen and see what 
Cook says about it.” 

She opened another door, and how good 
things did smell! And how hungry he was! 
He couldn’t remember when he had not 
been just a little hungry, and right now, 
with all the exciting times of the morning 
and everything so new, he was almost 
starved—and so thirsty! 

But he had never seen such a person as 
Cook. She was much bigger than his 


36 RUSTY 

mistress, and so black!—as black as Rusty, 
himself. And on top of her black head 
she had a red thing that reminded Rusty 
of that big yellow bow he had had to wear. 
He braced his legs to be ready to run if 
that seemed the best thing, and cocked his 
head on one side to look at her that way 
and see if his eyes had been fooling him. 
No, she looked just the same that way. 
She was just as big and just as black as 
he had first thought. He didn’t know just 
what to make of her—and he was so 
thirsty! 

When he stopped looking at Cook, he 
caught sight of a dish under the sink. 
Something must be in it that was good for 
dogs. He looked once more at the big 
black person who was making funny noises 
and rocking back and forth and laughing 
as he had never heard any one laugh be¬ 
fore. But she looked as if she might like 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 37 

a little dog—and he was so thirsty! He 
trotted to the dish. 

“ Heah! ” cried the big black cook that 
his mistress had told him would see about 
getting him something to eat, and who 
certainly lived where there were nice 
smells, “ you can’t hab Mittens’ lunch.” 
She grabbed the saucer away from him 
and put it on a shelf. 

“ You jes’ wait a minute and I’ll get 
you your own pussonal dish, Mr. Blackie. 
Lawdy, lawdy, what will Rex do to him 
when he sees him? ” she laughed. “ Is he 
yours. Miss Janet?” she asked as she 
waddled to a little room while Rusty stood 
watching, his tail moving just a little 
doubtfully as he waited to see what was 
going to happen. 

“ I’ll bet yo’ Mr. Arthur brought him 
on yer anniversa’y, now didn’t he, honey? ” 

Rusty really wasn’t paying any atten- 



38 


RUSTY 


tion to what was being said. He was too 
busy watching to see if she was going to 
get him a drink. When she went to the 
sink and filled a little dish with the nicest, 
coldest water he had ever tasted he just 
dashed at it and lapped and lapped until 
he wasn’t thirsty any more. 

When he could stop and look around, 
both his mistress and Cook were sitting on 
chairs watching him. He trotted out into 
the middle of the floor. What was this? 
Dog! He looked all around quickly. Of 
course some dogs are nice, but this one he 
smelled might not be. It was best to be 
sure about such things. With no dog in 
sight he followed the scent to the outer 
door. 

“ Yah, yah,” laughed the big black per¬ 
son. ‘‘ You smells Rex, you does. If he 
ever gits you, he’ll eat you right up in one 
bite,” she said, rocking her body back and 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 39 

forth aiid laughing while she shook one fat 
finger at him. 

Rusty didn’t know just what she had 
said, but he did know that she was telling 
him something about that dog he had 
scented. Whether to believe that warning 
finger or her laughter was what puzzled 
him. He looked at his mistress. 

‘‘You needn’t worry about good old 
Rex,” she told him. “ He’s the best- 
natured St. Bernard in the whole world. 
He’ll protect you instead of hurting you. 
Cook is only fooling.” 

Rusty immediately felt better as he 
wondered when he would meet Rex. It 
wasn’t to be then, because his mistress 
invited him upstairs with her to see where 
he would sleep while she changed her 
dress. 

In such a big house he had to make 
many stops and side trips before he finally 


40 RUSTY 

trailed his mistress into her room. She 
had not bothered him with constant calling 
but had left him to look around where he 
pleased before finding her. 

Finding her when he was ready was the 
easiest thing in the world for a little dog, 
but she pretended to be very much sur¬ 
prised when he trotted into her room, 
where she was seated before a big mirror 
doing things to her hair. Rusty stood and 
watched her a minute. 

“ If you are very good you may come 
up here and sit right beside me on this 
bench while I finish doing my hair,” she 
said. He cocked his head to one side 
which meant: “ I didn’t quite understand. 
Please say that again.” 

The next time, when she put one hand 
on the bench at her side, she made it per¬ 
fectly plain and he jumped up there. It 
was funny, Rusty found, to see hands that 


RUSTY’S NEW MISTRESS 41 

ought to belong to his mistress move in 
the glass and yet every time he looked at 
her, her hands were with her right there 
beside him. It made it a little easier for 
him when she dropped one hand and 
pulled one ear ever so gently. She told 
him that if he would be real good he could 
sit there and help her every day when he 
wasn’t doing something else. 

When she got up from the bench she 
went to a little room that wais full of 
things and brought out a nice soft cloth 
that she told him was his blanket and was 
not for any one else. She put it on the 
nearest one of two nice white beds and 
invited him to try it. 

“ That’s where you are to sleep,” she 
told him, “ and I think that after all the 
excitement this morning you had better 
have a little nap while I finish dressing.” 

But Rusty didn’t believe he was tired. 


42 RUSTY 

He had a lot more to do if he was to see 
everything in this new, big house. And 
there were Rex and Mittens he had not 
met. 

But his mistress quite insisted that he 
should lie down and keep her company. 
She took his front legs in one hand and 
laid him down and petted him. After a 
minute or two, Rusty thought that about 
forty winks would not delay him very 
much. Besides, the blanket was nice and 
soft and it was on a bed. While he was 
thinking of the many nice things that had 
happened to him he fell almost asleep. 
But he managed to open one eye once in 
a while to satisfy himself that his mistress 
did not go somewhere and leave him. 



CHAPTER III 

RUSTY AND BETTY 

His mistress moved about the room 
singing softly to herself, and Rusty tried 
hard to keep opening one eye every little 
while. There was so much he wanted to 
do that he could not afford to waste any 
time after his mistress was ready. But 
it became harder and harder to keep 


4>3 





























44 RUSTY 

awake, because it had been a very busy 
morning, and puppies get tired even if 
they don’t think they do. 

If you could have looked into that room 
an hour after Rusty had joined his mis¬ 
tress you would have seen a black silky¬ 
haired ball rolled up tight on a soft grey 
blanket. And if you had looked sharp you 
would have seen parts of it move with little 
quick jerks. That was Rusty, sound 
asleep and all alone in that big room, 
dreaming that he was scrambling over the 
rugs in that big front room downstairs 
and that they were slipping away from 
under him, try as hard as he could to keep 
on them. Mrs. Abbott had slipped out of 
the room leaving her tired puppy to have 
a nap. And Rusty had not known any¬ 
thing about her going. 

“Mother. Coo-oo! Mother!” 

Rusty sat up like a jack-in-the-box. 


RUSTY AND BETTY 45 

'\Yhat was that? Who called? Where 
was he? Oh, yes. Here he was in that 
nice big room where he had helped his 
mistress dress. At least, he had meant to 
help her, but somehow he must have fallen 
asleep. He must have missed something. 
‘‘ Coo-oo, Mother. I’m home! ” 
Rusty’s head cocked on one side. That 
was a new voice; a young voice. It 
sounded very much as if the owner would 
like to play, and if there was anything 
Rusty wanted to do right then, it was to 
play. He sprang from the bed and 
scampered towards the hall, his feet sliding 
and his toe-nails scratching on the floor 
before he remembered that he had got to 
turn corners a little slowly if he didn’t 
want to bump his head hard. 

Down the stairs he rushed, half running, 
half falling, and very much excited. He 
landed on the rug at the foot and it slid 


46 RUSTY 

across the floor until he bumped into a 
big leg of a table. He was so surprised 
and a little hurt that he gave a quick yip 
even while his feet were trying to help him 
stand up to go to find whoever it was who 
was calling. Into the big room he dashed, 
slipping and sliding before he remembered 
again how those rugs acted. But above all 
the noise he was making he could hear that 
fresh young voice somewhere calling 
“ Coo-oo, Mother! ” He dashed into the 
room in back of the big front room where 
Mittens had gone. The door was open 
again. 

Nobody was there! He couldn’t see any 
way to get out except through the door 
he had come in. He stopped and listened. 
Another door into the room opened and 
there was his mistress who was just say¬ 
ing: 

‘‘ Daddy brought me a nice-” 



RUSTY AND BETTY 


47 


Rusty saw some one else just as she 
saw him. 

“ Oh, you darling doggie! ” the young 
girl cried, dropping on her knees on the 
rug and holding out her arms just as her 
mother had done that morning. It was 
very inviting. 

‘‘ Daddy never brought this dog to you, 
Mother. He brought him to me, I know. 
You’ve got Rex and—what’s his name? 
Come to me,” she coaxed and patted her 
hands together gently. 

This certainly is nice, thought Rusty. 
Here was some one else to like him, and he 
was sure she would like to run and play. 
He looked at his mistress, and then, when 
he saw her smiling, he dashed at the girl, 
leaped into her arms and kissed her and 
kissed her, while she laughed and ex¬ 
claimed and pushed and mauled him 
around the way any puppy likes to be 


48 RUSTY 

played with, if his playmate does not get 
too rough. 

‘‘ Daddy didn’t say anything about you, 
dear, when he brought Rusty. He said he 
had bought him for himself and brought 
him home to see if I would let him keep 
him. But, of course, he was only fooling. 
He really bought him for us all, Betty, 
and he’ll love you because you and your 
friends will romp and play with him. He 
has been here only a little more than an 
hour and he was so tired that I left him 
asleep on a blanket on the foot of my bed. 
He must have heard you calling, and come 
down to get acquainted.” 

Rusty gave a little yip to say that he 
had done just exactly that. He jumped 
from Betty’s arms to run to her mother, 
stand up and put his paws on her dress to 
tell her that he was so glad to be surprised 
that way. She reached down and pulled 


RUSTY AND BETTY 


49 


one of his ears ever so gently, and told him 
that he had better quiet down now because 
it was almost lunch time and he would 
have to learn to be very quiet if he was to 
sit in the dining-room with the family. 

“ He’s going to have a chair right be¬ 
side mine,” said Betty. “ You know. Mit¬ 
tens doesn’t like to stay on the chair, and 
I do love kitties and doggies so it seems 
as if I could have one of them with me 
when I eat.” 

Rusty knew what “ eat ” meant and that 
word reminded him that he was very 
hungry. He promptly sat up and begged 
just as his first master had taught him to 
do for a bite of something as a reward. 

“ He’s almost starved! ” exclaimed 
Betty. ‘‘ See him beg! Did you teach 
him to do that? ” 

“ Oh, no. He knows several tricks 
Daddy said, but I haven’t tried to have 


50 


RUSTY 


him do any. IVe been letting him get 
acquainted. Tell him to sneeze! ” 

Rusty looked from his big mistress to 
Betty because he did not know whether 
that was a command or not. Betty 
laughed and told him to sneeze. Rusty 
took a long breath, let the tears gather in 
his eyes, and sneezed hard. 

Betty jumped up from the floor, ran to 
the dining-room and returned with a piece 
of cracker. Rusty promptly sat up and 
had the first thing to eat that he had had 
all the morning. It was so good that he 
swallowed it whole and begged for more. 

Just then the front door opened to 
admit his master. Everybody ran to meet 
him; his mistress, his little mistress, and 
Rusty, all talking at once. Betty and her 
mother were each asking if Rusty wasn’t 
her dog, while Rusty was announcing at 
the top of his voice that he belonged to 


RUSTY AND BETTY 51 

every one in the house, even to Cook, be¬ 
cause she lived where there were nice 
smells and had given him a dish for water 
that was his very own. 

Pretty soon they all went to the dinner 
table. A chair had been placed close to 
Betty’s in which Rusty was invited to sit. 
He jumped up when Betty put one hand 
on it and told him to sit down and be a 
good dog. It was the first time he had 
ever been invited to sit at a table, so he 
watched very closely to see what should 
be done. It was very hard to sit still when 
all the others were eating and, although he 
was very hungry, he had nothing. 

Soon Betty broke off a piece of her 
bread and gave it to Rusty. That bite 
made him turn from the table and face 
Betty. He could more easily watch his 
little mistress and be sure of not missing 
anything she might offer him. Betty was 


52 


RUSTY 


begging so hard to remain at home that 
afternoon that she ate very little and quite 
forgot to feed her new pet. Rusty had 
never heard the word “ school,” and did 
not understand that Betty wanted to be 
allowed to stay with him. He did not 
know then how much he was to miss her 
almost every morning and every after¬ 
noon. 

His big mistress told Betty that she 
ought to be allowed to have him to herself 
some of the time. If Betty were to stay 
home from school, she couldn’t. Betty’s 
father laughed a great deal about “ my 
dog ” that he had bought for himself, and 
every one else in the family claimed. 

While they were so busy talking and 
laughing. Rusty noticed that Betty used 
only a part of her chair because she was 
not so very big. He saw that it would be 
much easier for her to feed him if he were 


RUSTY AND BETTY 


58 


to sit on that part of her chair not occupied 
by Betty. He stepped over there from 
his chair, squeezed in behind his little mis¬ 
tress, and sat down. 

When they all laughed. Rusty looked 
at his master to see if he really minded 
very much and would make him go back 
to his own chair. It was very nice to have 
a chair all to himself, but he was sure it 
was much nicer and much handier for 
Betty to use part of her chair. If she 
wanted to give him something, he could 
reach it and save her a lot of bother. 

Betty moved a little forward on her 
chair and Rusty stuck his head under her 
right arm so that his mouth was very 
handy. He knew that would save her 
trouble and, besides, she liked to have him 
with her just as he certainly liked her. In 
fact, he liked everybody in the house and 
was ready and willing to sneeze or sit up 


54 RUSTY 

or do anything he could think of to please 
them. 

Just to let Betty know that he would 
like another bite, Rusty put his head down 
and sneezed. Betty said she was sorry 
she had neglected him. She gave him a 
piece of meat that Rusty was sure she was 
ready to eat herself if he had not sneezed. 

Mr. Abbott laughed and said that 
he didn’t know but this dog-at-the-table 
business was going too far, if Rusty was 
going to sneeze over^ everything at the 
table. Betty explained that Rusty had 
put his head down below the table when 
he sneezed, and, besides, he didn’t really 
sneeze but only made believe. 

They said “ sneeze ” so often in talking 
that Rusty caught the idea that they 
wanted him to keep doing it. He tried 
again and once more Betty gave him 
a bite. When they stopped talking about 


RUSTY AKD BETTY 55 


it Rusty stopped doing it. He kept 
his eyes on Betty’s plate and every time 
she took a mouthful Rusty turned his head 
and watched until the bit of food had dis¬ 
appeared in Betty’s pretty mouth. He 
didn’t know that he looked disappointed 
until Mrs. Abbott said she had never seen 
such a sad expression on a dog’s face as 
Rusty had each time Betty took a bite. 

When every one had stopped eating, 
Rusty heard a little bell tinkle somewhere. 
He pricked up his ears to learn what that 
meant. He hadn’t heard that noise be¬ 
fore. In a minute the door that led to 
where Cook lived with her nice smells was 
opened and some one he had not seen be¬ 
fore came into the room. She was almost 
as black as Cook, but not nearly so big. 
She had a white cap on her head, and she 
smiled at Rusty. 

The little dog couldn’t understand why 


RUSTY 


she took all the things that were left from 
the table to carry them to the room where 
Cook lived. He had not had very much 
to eat, yet she was taking it away from 
him. He watched every move while Betty 
talked about school and about Jennie and 
Pauline who would come home with her. 
Suddenly Rusty saw that this new person 
was bringing something more to eat from 
the Cook’s room, and he squeezed along a 
little to get his nose as close to the plate 
as he could. He didn’t want Betty to for¬ 
get that he was there. 

“ Oh, goody. Ice-cream! ” cried Betty. 

“ Woof,” said Rusty very softly. 

Again every one in the room laughed, 
and Rusty looked first at his master, then 
at his big mistress, trying to think what it 
could be that they were laughing at. He 
liked to hear people laugh, and was always 
glad to make them. 


RUSTY AND BETTY 57 

“ I guess Rusty agrees with you,” said 
Betty’s father when he could stop laugh¬ 
ing. ‘‘ But ice-cream is one thing we shall 
not serve him at the table. We are all 
forgetting our table manners, it seems to 
me.” 

‘‘ Oh, please. Daddy, let him sit here. 
We’ll both be good and I will give him 
only a bite of a cookie now and then.” 

Betty was holding a piece of a cookie 
in her right hand while she talked. She 
had taken one little bite of it but was so 
interested in talking to her father that she 
had forgotten how hungry little dogs can 
get when others are eating. 

Rusty saw that cookie held right in 
front of his nose. It smelled good and, 
besides, Betty had the ice-cream. He 
stretched his neck ever so slightly and— 
presto! the cookie was gone. 

Betty’s father saw him do it and 


58 RUSTY 

laughed again. Betty’s Daddy loved to 
laugh. 

‘‘ You’ll have to learn to eat with your 
left hand,” he said, “ or you will not have 
much yourself if you are going to tuck 
Rusty under your right arm.” 

But Betty said she was not worrying 
about getting enough to eat, for Rusty 
would soon learn good manners and not 
take anything that was not offered to him. 

“ Perhaps,” said Betty’s mother, ‘‘ if 
you had not been holding some food in 
your hand while you were talking you 
would not have tempted Rusty to grab it.” 

And Mr. Abbott said that he thought 
the dog might teach them all some things 
they would do well to remember. 



CHAPTER IV 

RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 

When the others at the table had 
finished eating all they wanted, or all 
that was good for them, Rusty was still 
very hungry. He had had only a few 
nibbles besides the big bite of cookie that 
he had snatched for himself. 

Mr. Abbott went around the table to 
Betty’s chair to pull first one of Rusty’s 


59 






















60 


RUSTY 


ears and then the other as he asked him if 
he was ready to go with him for a ride to 
the office. Rusty’s tail said that he would 
like very much to go, but his master ought 
to know that, while he had had all he 
needed to eat, a little dog was very hungry. 

Rusty need not have worried about not 
having enough to eat. Both Mrs. Abbott 
and Betty exclaimed that Rusty had not 
had his dinner. “ Besides,” said Betty, “ I 
want him here when I come home from 
school this afternoon because Jennie and 
Pauline are coming home with me to 
teeter and to meet Rusty.” 

“ But,” objected her Daddy, his eyes 
twinkling with fun, “ they do not know 
that you have Rusty.” 

“No, I know that,” replied Betty. 
“ But they will as soon as I meet them on 
my way to school. We always go along 
together, you know, and we always tell 


RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 61 


each other any good news. And Rusty is 
good news; just gorgeous good news,” she 
exclaimed, stooping to catch up Rusty for 
a hug and kiss before favoring her Daddy 
with another. 

Kissing his wife and daughter, Mr. 
Abbott said good-bye to Rusty, promising 
him that some day when no one was look¬ 
ing he would take him to the office with 
him where they would have a grand time. 
Rusty ran to the window of the big front 
room, where by stretching every muscle of 
his little body while he pulled with the 
claws of his fore feet on the window-sill 
he was able to see his master get into the 
car and move that stick that made it go. 
Rusty watched until he had disappeared 
around the corner before thinking again 
about being hungry. 

Betty, in a hurry, picked him up, “ so 
he can kiss me good-bye,” she told her 


C2 RUSTY 

mother before she went out to join Jennie 
and Pauline on their way to school. There 
Betty was to study and recite as best she 
could while thinking about Rusty and the 
good times they would have while she was 
at home and, best of all, during the long 
summer vacation. Rusty again stood at 
the window until Betty had gone out of his 
sight. Then once more he remembered 
how hungry he was. 

“ Now,” said his big mistress when 
Rusty turned away from the window, 
“ we’ll see what can be done about some¬ 
thing to eat for a little dog I know. There 
was too much excitement while Betty and 
her Daddy were home for you to have time 
to eat.” 

When Mrs. Abbott started towards the 
room in which Rusty had sat in Betty’s 
chair he trotted along hoping that he 
would be allowed to go on into the room 


RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 63 

where Cook lived with all those nice smells. 
So he wagged his tail as fast as he could, 
trotted close at her side, and kept his eyes 
on her every step of the way. 

She passed the table and Betty’s chair, 
where Rusty stopped a second to make 
sure that nothing had been dropped on the 
floor, and opened the door into the room 
of the nice smells. 

“ Yas’m,” Cook said, “ I’se got his din¬ 
ner right yere for the little tyke on his 
own special plate right side ob Mittens’. 
They’se goin’ to eat right side ob each 
odder.” 

Rusty remembered where his dish of 
water had been placed under the sink. 
Being thirsty as well as hungry, he trotted 
there to find a dish with lots of good things 
to eat. He began to eat hurriedly when 
Cook stopped him with a shout. 

“ Heah. You let that alone. That’s 


64 RUSTY 

Mittens’ dinner. Heah’s yours in this nice 
big dish.” 

Hungry as he was, Rusty backed away. 
He didn’t know what being shouted at like 
that meant. His tail drooped as he looked 
up at his mistress who was watching him 
but not saying anything. 

Cook got down on the floor and moved 
the larger dish a little towards Rusty tell¬ 
ing him to come and get his own dinner. 
“ Dat’s yo’ dish,” she explained in a 
friendly voice, “ an’ yo’ mustn’t eber touch 
anything on dis one, ’cause dat’s Mittens’.” 

Rusty’s tail moved a trifle but he was 
still doubtful of Cook because she had 
shouted at him. She was the same person, 
he remembered, who had shook a finger at 
him and told him about Rex, the big dog 
that might eat him at one bite. He took 
a step towards the plate as Cook snapped 
her fingers at him and coaxed. He was so 


RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 65 


hungry that he moved another step to¬ 
wards the plate and then still another. In 
a minute he was eating just as fast as he 
could. 

Cook petted him, telling him at the 
same time that he would never be hungry 
after he came to her kitchen and told her 
about it. Rusty decided that she would 
be nice to a little dog. Having settled that 
matter, he devoted himself to his meal in 
good earnest. 

When a spaniel puppy is eating or 
drinking, his big ears flop forward so far 
that he is unable to see what is going on 
at either side of him. When Rusty raised 
his head once to chew an extra nice bit of 
food, he stopped suddenly and jumped 
back. 

He had seen a beautiful big cat eating 
from a dish right beside his own. Kitties 
have small ears, and Mittens—for it was 


66 RUSTY 

Mittens—^had been watching Rusty every 
second. When he jumped back, her tail 
jumped in size, her back went up, and she 
crouched with one front paw raised, every 
claw showing. 

Rusty was surprised. He never chased 
a cat unless it started to run. And 
whenever cats got tired of running and 
stopped. Rusty always stopped to sniff 
around, as if he had been looking for some¬ 
thing else all the time. In fact. Rusty 
rather liked cats; that is, cats that were 
nice to him. 

No one said anything. Rusty looked up 
at his mistress to see what she thought 
about such actions on the part of a very 
nice clean tiger kitty with four white feet 
which looked as if she had drawn on white 
mittens. 

“Yah, yah,” laughed Cook. “ Mittens 
says for you not to get rambimctious-like 


RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 67 

wid her, or she’U scratch dat nose ob 
yours.” 

Rusty looked quickly at Cook, then 
right back at Mittens. He didn’t dare not 
to watch Mittens for fear she would reach 
him with her sharp claws. But Mittens 
had put down her paw, and the hair on her 
back and tail had begun to lie down again. 
She saw that Rusty was not such a dog as 
she had known in the neighborhood. Some 
of the neighbors’ dogs had not been nice 
to her. This one, she decided, acted like 
quite a nice dog. With her friend, Cook, 
and her mistress in the room. Mittens 
stepped back to her dish to finish her meal. 

Rusty decided that if Mittens lived in 
this nice house with such kind people he 
would rather be friends with her, so that 
she would play with him when Betty and 
her friends were not around. So he turned 
around a little that his ears might not hide 


68 RUSTY 

Mittens from his sight, took a quick bite, 
and looked up. Mittens was drinking her 
milk, although she was keeping watch of 
Rusty instead of looking at her dish. In 
another minute they were both acting as 
if they had been in each other’s company 
for weeks, instead of having just been in¬ 
troduced at dinner. 

“ I guess, Mandy, that they will get 
along together after a little while,” said 
their mistress. ‘‘ Rusty is a very lovable 
dog, and we know how nice Mittens is. 
Now, Mandy, you are to remember that 
you are not to feed Rusty every time he 
asks for something or does some trick. He 
will sneeze for anything.”^ 

Rusty was licking his mouth as he 
watched his mistress. Hearing that word 
of command he braced himself and sneezed 
as hard as he could, which was very hard. 

Poor Mittens! With that sneeze so un- 


RUSTY MEETS MITTENS 69 


expected she left her milk and went up 
into the air as only a cat can jump when 
frightened. It was just as if Rusty’s 
sneeze had blown Mittens up. Terribly 
frightened, she spit at him, while her hair 
and tail again stood straight up and her 
right fore paw was raised to strike. 

Rusty was even more surprised than 
Mittens was frightened. He had done 
only what he had imderstood he was told 
to do, yet Cook was lying face down across 
the table, saying “Yah, yah!” as she 
slapped the table with her big fat hands. 
His mistress had picked him up and was 
laughing, while Mittens was backed in a 
corner, wild-eyed with fright. And all 
because Rusty had sneezed! 

“ Mandy, I forbid you ever to say 
sneeze-” 

Rusty heard his mistress use that word 
again. Promptly he sneezed. Mrs. Ab- 



70 


RUSTY 


bott caught him by the nose and hurried 
out of the room, laughing until the tears 
came. Until she had carried him into the 
big front room with two doors shut behind 
them, he could hear Cook in the kitchen 
slapping the table and laughing. 

It was more than Rusty could under¬ 
stand. He had done only what he thought 
his mistress had told him to do, yet he had 
frightened Mittens and made two friends 
laugh until they cried. 



CHAPTER V 

RUSTY MEETS REX 

“ I WISH I knew whether you would 
stay with me,” said Rusty’s mistress, after 
that exciting time in the kitchen when he 
had met Mittens at dinner and both had 
been surprised. “ I think I had better 
have you on a leash until you learn to stay 
here at home,” she said as she stood look- 

71 



72 RUSTY 

ing at Rusty, now lying on a rug in the 
big front room. 

Mrs. Abbott got a long leather strap 
with a metal clasp on one end and snapped 
it to Rusty’s collar. That was something 
new for Rusty. He had no idea where he 
could be going or why he should be tied 
to his mistress. He had no wish to leave 
her, unless for a minute or two to chase a 
cat—if the cat would run—or to try to find 
something exciting in the many scents and 
smells he might run across. 

He was very sober as they went out of 
a side door on to a big lawn. That was 
enough to make any little dog that never 
had had a chance to run on the grass tug 
and pull and jump to get away from that 
strap. Rusty wasn’t trying to run away, 
but only to run and romp as children do 
when they are released from school on a 
pleasant day. 


RUSTY MEETS REX 73 

His mistress told him not to be in too 
much of a hurry. She said that in a few 
days, after he knew everybody and every¬ 
thing around their home, he could run and 
race as much as he liked, but just now she 
wanted him to go with her to the garage 
and meet Rex. 

Rusty stopped short. His mistress was 
talking about that big dog Cook had said 
might eat him at one bite. He looked up 
at Mrs. Abbott, head cocked on one side, 
to ask her whether she thought it would 
be quite safe for him to get near that big 
dog. She seemed to know what he meant, 
for she told him that Rex was the best- 
natured dog in the whole world and would 
be glad to have a little dog for a chum. 
While she was telling him that, they were 
walking towards the garage and, the doors 
being open. Rusty saw an automobile in 
there and he thought that meant they were 


74 


RUSTY 


going for a ride. Rusty had had his first 
ride that morning, and he was sure the 
most exciting thing that could happen to 
a dog was to ride in a big car. 

Trying to hurry his mistress along to 
the car, he gave a harder jump than he 
had been giving and it snatched the strap 
right out of Mrs. Abbott’s hand. 

“ Oh! ” she cried. ‘‘ Catch him, James. 
Don’t let our new little dog run away! 
Come, Rusty. Come here.” 

When a man came hurrying to the door 
of the garage. Rusty stopped short. What 
a lot of people there were to meet and 
make friends with in this new home of his! 
His tail wagged very slowly because he 
was not sure about this man. He cocked 
his head on one side trying to make up 
his mind whether this man, James, was to 
be just a man he knew, or a real friend. 

“Hello, there,” said James. “Where 


RUSTY MEETS REX 75 


did you get that little tyke, madam? ” he 
asked as he sat down on his heels and 
snapped his fingers. “ Come, see me,” he 
invited. 

But just then the biggest dog Rusty 
had ever seen came from somewhere in the 
garage and stood beside the man. Rusty 
backed up a step. What a giant that dog 
was! His mouth was open, his tongue 
hung out, and his tail was still. That 
didn’t make him look any too friendly to 
Rusty, suddenly remembering that his 
mistress had said, “ Come here!” 

He whirled around and got behind her. 
He had been taught that was the proper 
place for a dog when walking with its 
master or mistress. But it was so exciting 
to come to a new home and meet so many 
people who liked you, and Mittens who 
surprised you, and now Rex, this big dog, 
that it was no wonder he had forgotten for 


76 RUSTY 

a minute all the things he had been told 
to do. 

But now that he had seen Rex and 
found how big he really was and what a 
big mouth he had, it was easy to remember 
that masters or mistresses will always 
protect you if you only stay with them. 
That was really the reason why Rusty 
scooted behind Mrs. Abbott, and it was 
nothing that should have made James and 
his mistress laugh so heartily. 

“ I’m not sure, James,” she said, 
“ whether that’s what he has been trained 
to do, or whether he is just there because 
Rex frightened him. Mittens frightened 
him, and then he scared her nearly to death 
when he sneezed. He- 

“ O dear, you can’t mention that word 
or he will sneeze his head off.” 

You see. Rusty heard that word again 
and he was so anxious to please every- 



RUSTY MEETS REX 77 

body that he had promptly sneezed. How 
James did laugh! And how Rex did prick 
up his huge ears, say ‘‘ Woof ” gently, and 
wag his tail a very little. 

His mistress picked up her end of the 
strap and went closer to Rex. “ Come, 
Rex,” she said, ‘‘ and meet your new 
friend.” 

“ Rex has been a little jealous, I guess,” 
said James, “ seeing you with another dog. 
But they’ll be great friends, ma’am, be¬ 
cause Rex will never touch a little feller 
like him. Come on, little feller—^what’d 
you say his name is, ma’am? ” 

Mrs. Abbott told him, and stooped a 
little to pat Rex’s head, while Rusty 
tugged at the leash to get as far away 
as he could. He was not sure that Rex 
might not do just what that big black 
cook had said he would—eat him up at 
one bite. 



78 


RUSTY 


But Rex was not paying much attention 
to him. He was very content to stand 
there and have his head patted. Rusty 
mustered up courage and moved one step 
at a time a little nearer. 

“ I’ll have to teach him some tricks,” 
said James. ‘‘ Those little fellers learn 
quickly, and they never forget. I’ve seen 
lots of ’em.” 

“ Mr. Abbott said that he knew how to 
sit up and beg, play dead, and roll over,” 
said his mistress, “ besides that trick you 
saw and heard him do a minute ago.” 

Rusty and Rex by that time were hav¬ 
ing a whispered talk. They agreed that 
if they both must live in the same place 
they might as well be friends first as last. 
They were not paying a bit of attention to 
what was being said, because they were so 
busy with their own affairs. In fact they 
had not noticed that James had come close 


RUSTY MEETS REX 79 

to them until suddenly he said, “ Dead 
dog!’’ 

Rex stopped whispering to Rusty, 
looked up at James, groaned and slowly 
let his huge body down to the ground. 
Rusty looked at him very much sur¬ 
prised. 

“ Dead dog. Rusty,” said James again. 

Rusty remembered then. He’d show 
them how to do that. Quick as a wink he 
flopped on one side, shut his eyes tight and 
stiffened his legs out straight. When he 
did a trick, he wasn’t as slow about it as 
Rex, he’d have them know. He had just 
understood that Rex was playing “ dead 
dog.” But, Rusty told himself, Rex 
hadn’t done it half so well as he had. Any 
one could see that, he was sure, and he 
opened one eye to see if they had been 
watching him. They were, both of them. 

“ That dog has been well trained,” said 


80 RUSTY 

James, “ and he’s only a puppy. He’ll 
be a great chum for Miss Betty, ma’am, 
and I’ll teach him some new tricks. He’s 
a well-bred dog. You can tell from the 
looks of him. And he’s so knowin’. I 
don’t know what he was taught for the 
word to get up, but maybe it is the same 
that I taught Rex.” 

He slapped his hands together. “All 
right. Wake up!” he said. 

Rusty was on his feet in one bound with 
a joyous little yip. But Rex was com¬ 
fortable, and just raised his head to tell 
James that he heard and understood, but 
he thought he might as well take it easy 
on such a warm day. 

Rusty looked at James, then at his mis¬ 
tress, and then at Rex. He had been 
taught to mind, and he did not under¬ 
stand why Rex did not get up when he was 
told to do so. He trotted over to him and 


RUSTY MEETS REX 81 

smelled of him. Finding nothing the mat¬ 
ter he barked sharply right in one ear 
which made his mistress and James laugh. 

“ Let him alone,” said James. ‘‘ When 
you are as old as he is and need cool 
weather to be really comfortable, you 
won’t be so smart, perhaps.” 

“ I shall, too,” barked Rusty. “ I do 
what I’m told, and every dog ought to 
when he understands what you mean. 
Rex knew what you meant just as I did, 
but he’s too lazy to do it.” 

‘‘ Now, Rusty,” said his mistress, “ there 
is just one thing you must not do, and I 
want you to understand it. You must not 
plague Rex. He’s willing to have you live 
here, and because he did not get up again 
when it is so hard for him to do much in 
warm weather does not give you a right to 
find fault with him. Let him lie there and 
try and keep cool and you come along into 


82 RUSTY 

the house with me and have a nap before 
Betty gets home. You’ll have all the exer¬ 
cise you need then.” 

A few minutes later Rusty was curled 
down on his blanket on the foot of Mrs. 
Abbott’s bed, sound asleep. He was 
dreaming of Mittens and Rex when he 
suddenly sat up, wide awake. He gave 
those long ears of his a great shake to 
straighten them out and listened again. 

“ Hi, Rusty. Hi, Rusty. Come and 
play! ” That was Betty’s voice. 

Off the bed he jumped, and scratched 
and slipped and tumbled out into the hall 
and down the stairs until he landed all in 
a heap and mixed up with Betty’s legs and 
the legs of Jennie and Pauline, who had 
come to make his acquaintance and to play 
with him. 

What a time he had kissing and being 
kissed by the three girls and barking and 


RUSTY MEETS REX 83 

jumping until Betty’s mother came to 
them and told them to go outdoors, be¬ 
cause she could not hear herself think 
‘‘ with you girls and the puppy all shout¬ 
ing at the top of your voices.” 

Out into the yard shot Rusty when 
Betty opened the door. He had no strap 
hitched to him now, and there was no 
reason why he couldn’t run and race as 
much as he wanted to. So that’s just what 
he did. He scurried as fast as his little 
legs would take him in one direction, 
stopped suddenly and raced back, telling 
the girls with little yips that they would 
have to be very fast to play with him, for 
he was a good runner and clever at 
dodging. 

Mrs. Abbott came to the door and 
warned Betty not to let Rusty get away 
for he was not used to his new home yet 
and might try to find his way back to 


84 RUSTY 

where he had come from. There was no 
way for Rusty to tell her that he wouldn’t 
run away; that he couldn’t be driven away 
from that house, so he dashed down into 
the back yard towards the garage to show 
that he knew where he belonged. 

The three girls raced after him, but 
stopped at the big teeter-board on which 
they often played in the shade. Jennie was 
a big girl, and she got on one end while 
Betty and Pauline, who were smaller, got 
on the other. Rusty didn’t know what to 
make of that. It was something he didn’t 
know anything about. First Betty was 
down where he could kiss her, and then she 
was away up in the air. That was very 
strange. He barked to tell her so, and to 
show how much he would like to play that 
game with them. 

“ Oh, let’s put Rusty in the middle and 
see if he likes it,” cried Betty. The girls 


RUSTY MEETS REX 85 


stopped the teeter and Betty reached 
down and picked her new pet up and 
placed him on the wide plank. Then she 
and Ruth pushed with their feet and 
Rusty felt himself going up in the air. He 
yipped excitedly and shook himself to tell 
Betty to let go of him. When she took 
her hand away, he started along the plank 
because Jennie was calling him, but when 
he got in the middle, he stopped because 
one minute Jennie was away up in the air, 
and the next she was down close to the 
ground. 

He stopped there to figure out just 
what was happening. He liked the gentle 
rise and fall he got there in the middle, 
and he stayed right there for a long time. 
It was the first of many hundreds of times 
that Rusty teetered in the back yard of the 
Abbott home with Betty and her friends. 



CHAPTER VI 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 

A WEEK after Rusty had met every¬ 
body at the Abbotts’, he had made some 
rules that all the members of the family 
obeyed. He first decided that he must 
have two beds. Betty, of course, went to 
bed before any one else. Having kissed 
Daddy and Mother good-night. Rusty 
raced ahead of her upstairs. 

Because he insisted upon going to bed 

86 







RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 87 


with Betty, her mother had placed an old 
blanket on the foot of Betty’s bed. The 
first thing Betty did each night after 
reaching her room was to undress Rusty. 
He sat with his head held up while his 
little mistress unbuckled his collar. He 
had to shake very hard to make the hair 
on his neck feel good after the collar was 
off. That done, he picked up the collar 
and dropped it in the corner by the door 
ready to grab in the morning. 

Having got Rusty ready for bed, Betty 
began slowly ho undress, for she never was 
in a hurry to go to bed. But Rusty, after 
a hard day of play, was always ready to 
go to bed with the first person to retire 
for the night. And he was always so tired 
that he couldn’t possibly jump up on the 
bed! Having put his collar in the proper 
place, he sat close to the bed and yawned, 
but Betty paid no attention. Twisting 


88 RUSTY 

his head away around, he yawned loudly 
again, his eyes almost closed, he was so 
sleepy! He sneezed, but Betty did not 
seem to hear. At last he sat up, put his 
paws against the bedclothes, and buried 
his nose in them. Then Betty saw him! 

“Amen,” she said. 

But Rusty did not jump around as he 
usually did after he had done one of his 
tricks. He was so tired that he let himself 
sink back on his haunches, head down and 
eyes just barely open! Betty then lifted 
him up and tucked him under the blanket, 
no matter how warm the night was. When 
she had kissed him good-night. Rusty, with 
a happy little sigh, snuggled down for a 
short sleep. 

It was just a short nap with Rusty, be¬ 
cause when Mrs. Abbott came upstairs 
to her room she always looked in on Betty 
and Rusty to see that they were tucked in 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 89 

for the night. No matter how still she 
was, Rusty always waked, jumped down, 
and trotted into his big mistress’s room 
where he waited to be lifted up on the bed. 
But he didn’t say his prayers there. Once 
a night was enough for him, especially as 
he usually said them once or twice a day 
for Cook when trying to wheedle some¬ 
thing to eat from her. 

Rusty having found that Mr. and Mrs. 
Abbott arose in the morning much earlier 
than Betty, kept right on pretending to 
sleep. Betty was allowed to sleep as late 
as she could without being late for school. 
As he had learned that there was nothing 
for him to eat at the table until she was 
there, he could see no reason to go down 
until his little mistress was heard to hurry 
down to get her breakfast. 

Then, scrambling into her room, catch¬ 
ing up his collar, with the buckle banging 


90 


RUSTY 


on every stair, against the wall, and the 
door, he dashed into the dining-room and 
up on Betty’s chair, wide-awake and so 
hungry! 

“ The idea of you coming to breakfast 
undressed,” Mrs. Abbott said to him each 
morning, looking at him as if much sur¬ 
prised. 

“ If you will bring your collar to me 
I will put it on for you, but next time you 
must remember to get up early enough to 
be dressed before breakfast.” 

Down Rusty jumped, trotted to the side 
of his big mistress while she put his collar 
on, pulled an ear, and petted him. Then 
back to Betty’s chair he went, where no 
sooner had he poked his nose under her 
arm than a bite of toast or a bit of roll 
was waiting for him. Betty did not look. 
She kept right on eating, but somehow 
Rusty got quite a number of bites. Betty 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 91 

finished with a rush, pushed back her chair, 
and gave Rusty a hug and kiss, with an¬ 
other for her mother as she hurried away. 

After the first day or two. Rusty 
learned that it was useless to follow her. 
He couldn’t go to school, so why should 
he leave the table? He hoped that some 
day some one would give him a bite if he 
behaved himself and was very patient. 
But his big mistress, who sometimes sat 
at table a few minutes after Betty had 
left, never gave him anything. 

When the door opened to admit the 
maid. Rusty still hoped that she would be 
good enough to give him a scrap of some¬ 
thing, it made no difference what, that had 
been left on a plate. He did not know 
that his big mistress had told Sarah that 
he must not be fed except in the kitchen. 
Patiently he waited each day until every¬ 
thing had been cleared from the table and 


92 


RUSTY 


Sarah held the door open for him as she 
told him his breakfast was waiting for him. 

He trotted through the door and 
straight to the one leading from the cellar 
where he sat down and looked reproach¬ 
fully at Cook. 

“ Wal, I ’dare,” she said every morn¬ 
ing. “ Ob c’ose you-all cain’t eat nuthin’ 
’til yo lady-love is at de table. C’ose not. 
Wha’d yo’ s’pose I’s thinkin’ ’bout not to 
hab dat do’ open? ” 

Waddling across the floor Mandy 
opened the door for Mittens to step into 
the kitchen, her ears laid back as if angry 
about something. But she wasn’t. She 
had prepared for Rusty’s moist kisses, 
one on each side of her head. 

Mittens did not kiss him in return but 
she expected and received every morning 
Rusty’s greetings before they walked 
across the floor side by side and began 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 93 

their breakfast. No one ever knew whether 
Rusty told her that he already had had a 
few bites at the table. But if he had, 
INIittens would have laughed and told him 
that a few bites were nothing, for she had 
caught a nice fat mouse while he was 
sleeping. 

One morning not long after Rusty had 
made the Abbott home his own, he grew 
tired of play in the back yard. Seeing Rex 
standing at the kitchen door, he raced up 
the steps to learn why Rex was asking to 
get into the house. That was forbidden 
him, Rusty knew. But he didn’t know 
that Cook sometimes let him in for just a 
few minutes. 

Rex’s nose was close to the crack in the 
door. Rusty put his nose there and sniffed. 
He got a nice smell that never before had 
come to him from the kitchen. He looked 
up to ask Rex what it was. But Rex was 


94 


RUSTY 


not talking to little dogs then. He was 
saying ‘‘ Woof ” very softly; a secret sig¬ 
nal, Rusty guessed. And he was right. 

Because, while he was trying to decide 
what wonderful food it could be that 
smelled so good, the door opened a little 
and Cook peeked through the crack. 

“ Whafer yo’ here, Mr. Rex? ” she 
asked. 

‘‘ Woof.” 

“ You know it’s ’gainst de rules to admit 
yo’ to my kitchen and—^my goodness— 
who’s dat wif yo’? I cain’t hab de whole 
neighborhood in here! ” 

“ Woof,” said Rex. 

“ Yip,” said Rusty, hoping to help. 

“ Yo’ll hab to do all yo’ tricks, Mr. Rex, 
if I’m gwine to waste one ob my dough¬ 
nuts on you!” 

“ Woof,” replied Rex. 

“ Yip,” added Rusty. 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 95 

The door was opened wide. Rex 
marched in and Rusty bounded in, to be¬ 
gin sniffing all around. He found the 
smell came from the stove and from the 
table. 

“ Now, you Rusty,” said Cook, shaking 
her finger at him, “ yoVe had yo’ break¬ 
fast and Rex eats only once a day ’cept 
when I makes my doughnuts. Dis is his 
show. Yo’ unnerstand dat! ” 

Rusty’s tail said that he knew all about 
it, but to please hurry up and let him see 
it. 

Cook reached up on a shelf over the 
table for a lump of sugar she had there 
and walked to where Rex was sitting in 
the middle of the floor. Rusty trotted 
along to see what was going to happen. 
Only once had he had a lump of sugar, one 
that had fallen on the floor and which he 
had picked up. .It had been very tasty. 


96 RUSTY 

even if Mrs. Abbott had told him that it 
was not good for little dogs. Maybe Cook 
did not know that! 

Rex sat motionless while Cook placed 
the lump on his nose. Being so close to 
his eyes, he was obliged to look cross-eyed 
at it, but he did not move. He sat very 
still. But Rusty didn’t. He sat up, 
begged, sneezed, rolled over, and played 
dead dog, but Cook paid no attention to 
him. 

Cook left Rusty and Rex in the middle 
of the floor while she sat down in her big 
chair. Something was going on that Rusty 
did not understand. He did not know 
whether to follow Cook or stick close to 
Rex. If Rex wasn’t going to eat that 
sugar. Rusty would. In a minute Cook 
said “ one.” Nothing happened. “ Two,” 
she said. Still Rex sat motionless. 

“Three!” 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 97 

Rex tossed the lump of sugar into the 
air and when it came down it disappeared 
in his mouth. 

Rusty yipped with delight. That was 
a trick he didn’t know, but he believed in 
applauding when a good trick was well 
done. Rex paid no attention to Rusty’s 
excited applause. He turned his huge 
body around and faced the stove. 

“ Wal,” said Cook, getting up from her 
chair, “ I s’pose I’se got to gib yo’ one, 
but it ain’t good for you, and yo’ knows 
it.” 

With a long-handled fork she lifted out 
one of those things she had called dough¬ 
nuts from the boiling fat. She let it drip 
a moment, then tossed it into the air. 

Rex, his lips curled back, caught it be¬ 
tween his teeth, holding the doughnut until 
it had cooled enough to eat without burn¬ 
ing himself. 


98 


RUSTY 


Rusty, .much excited, jumped and 
barked at Rex and Cook, telling them that 
he could do that if he had a chance. Cook 
told him he must hush or she would not 
allow him in her kitchen again, and that he 
could not have a doughnut, because it was 
not good for him. While she was telling 
Rusty all that, Rex had eaten his dough¬ 
nut, walked to the door and asked to have 
it opened. • t 

Rusty started to follow but turned back 
to try to persuade Cook to give him some¬ 
thing. He sneezed, he spoke softly and he 
rolled over but Cook did not even look at 
him. At last he jumped up in Cook’s 
chair, put his-fore paws on one arm, his 
head between them and prayed. But Cook 
was not to be persuaded. 

“ Yo’ can sneeze yo’ head off,” she told 
him, “ but yo’ ain’t goin’ to get nothin’ to 
eat from me. I’se had my orders, and I 


RUSTY MAKES SOME RULES 99 


ain’t gwine to get into no trouble for any 
little dog what nobody cares nothin’ 
about.” 

Rusty was much hurt. Getting down 
from the chair, his tail drooping, he walked 
to the door leading to the dining-room and 
asked very softly, “ Please open this 
door.” 

Cook waddled to it, but before she 

m 

opened it she stooped down, pulled one of 
Rusty’s ears, and said: 

“ Don’t go off mad. Rusty. I’ll skimp 
a leetle on de ice-cream to-night, and after 
dinner vou come out here and I wouldn’t 
be a bit s’prised if yo’ found some.” 

Rusty felt much better when he heard 
that. As he trotted into the front of the 
house to find his mistress, he knew that he 
would remember to slip into the kitchen 
after dinner. If there was any one thing 
that Rusty liked, it was ice-cream. 


) 


> > 
) > > 


>)' 



CHAPTER VII 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 

Rusty was not satisfied to do only the 

ft/ 

tricks that he had been taught. He in¬ 
vented some of his own, and one of them 
was mopping the kitchen floor. He de¬ 
lighted to pester Cook when she was 
sweeping or mopping, by catching hold of 
the broom or mop and swinging it back 
and forth. Cook learned not to leave a 
towel or her apron where Rusty could 


( ’ c 
<>()!• 


100 


































































RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 101 

reach it. He was sure to use whatever 
he could get hold of for a mop. 

But oue day Cook left the kitchen doors 
all shut while she went to the garage. 
Rusty was with his mistress and a caller. 
But he had just got up from a nap and 
insisted on playing, so his mistress told 
him to go and play with Cook until Betty 
got home. She opened the kitchen door 
for him, and closed it after him without 
noticing that Cook was not in the room. 

Once or twice Mrs. Abbott thought she 
heard some unusual noise in the kitchen, 
but smiled and explained to her friend that 
Cook and Rusty were having a romp. 
And yet when, just as she closed the front 
door after her guest, she heard a shout 
from Cook she wondered if everything was 
as it should be. She hurried to the 
kitchen. 

There was Cook standing just inside 


102 


RUSTY 


the outer door looking as if she could not 
make up her mind whether to laugh or 
cry. Rusty was in the middle of the floor 
with Cook’s big apron, very dirty and wet, 
spread out in front of him while he held 
one of the strings in his mouth. He was 
looking at Cook, his tail barely moving in 
that questioning way of his, while he 
waited to know whether he was to be 
praised or scolded. 

Cook had just mopped her kitchen 
floor and left everything spick and span 
when she went to the garage. She had 
washed Mittens’ and Rusty’s dishes and 
put them back under the sink. Mittens’ 
dish she had filled with milk, and Rusty’s 
with fresh water. But she had not put 
back in place an open package of Gold 
Dust she had been using. She had left 
that standing on a corner of the kitchen 
table. 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 108 

Rusty, disgusted because he was not 
allowed to play with his mistress’s visitor, 
and not finding Cook in the kitchen, had 
taken a swallow or two of his fresh water 
and looked around for something to do. 

He wanted to play, and there was no 
one to play with. He smelled Cook’s 
apron and pulled it down to the floor from 
the chair on which it had been left. When 
he switched it on the floor, the idea came 
to him that with no one there to stop him 
he could mop that floor just as he had al¬ 
ways wanted to, and have a good time 
while doing it. He snatched the apron 
this way, then that, just as he had seen 
Cook swish the mop about. He dragged 
it over near the sink and while he was 
swishing it around upset both the dish of 
water and Mittens’ dish of milk. 

He was a little surprised to discover 
the milk and water running on the floor. 


104 


RUSTY 


and stopped for a minute. He lapped a 
little of the mixed milk and water, but he 
wasn’t thirsty and he went back to his 
mopping. The apron was a little heavier 
now, because most of it was wet. He had 
to swing it harder than at first, and sud¬ 
denly over went the box of Gold Dust, 
spilling its contents liberally. 

Too busy now to notice that, he shook 
the apron harder and faster and in a 
minute he saw there was funny-looking 
stuff on the floor. If he could do all that 
without half trying, he wondered what 
might happen if he really went to work. 
He took a new hold on the apron and 
furiously worked it back and forth until 
almost the whole kitchen floor was covered 
with bubbling milky suds. 

That was when Cook opened the door 
and shouted at him. And it was the pic¬ 
ture his mistress saw when she opened the 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 105 

other door to learn what Cook was mak¬ 
ing such a loud noise about. 

His mistress stood there a second be¬ 
fore she laughed. That told Rusty that 
everything was all right. He dropped 
the apron and dashed for her. When she 
dodged through the door and shut it in 
his face, he was very much surprised. He 
listened while she called through the door 
to Cook to put Rusty outdoors and while 
she explained how she had shut Rusty out 
there thinking that Cook was there. She 
was very, very sorry, she said. Then 
Rusty heard her laugh again. 

“ You mis’able little scamp, you,” 
scolded Cook. ‘‘ You ruined ma apron 
and ma nice, clean floor. An’ you spilled 
Mittens’ milk jes’ when she needs it most 
’cause she’s got a fambly to s’port now. 
An’ look at yo’se’f, all water and milk and 
suds. You go right to James and tell 


106 RUSTY 

him to clean you up, you naughty 
dog” 

Cook came into the room and pointed 
to the open door. “ Go right straight out 
oh ma kitchen an’ don’t you eber ask me 
no mo’ for anything to eat. No, sir. 
You can do all oh your tricks all oh de 
time, an’ I’m nebber goin’ to gib you 
nothin’ mo’ to eat. Git out ob here! ” 

Rusty didn’t believe all Cook had said, 
but he knew that his mopping of the floor 
was not exactly what could be called a 
success. He trotted outdoors wondering 
what in the world to do with himself until 
Betty got home. He would rather have 
Betty wash him than James, because 
Betty laughed and played with him. 
When James washed him, he made a busi¬ 
ness of it—and such a thorough business. 
You didn’t have any play when James 
gave you a bath. 



RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 107 

He shook himself and sprinkled the 
back piazza before he trotted down into 
the yard. Rex was probably in the 
garage where it was cool, but Rusty didn’t 
intend to go to the garage, because the 
minute James saw him he would want to 
know how a dog that lived in a nice house' 
could get so wet and dirty as he was. 
Even Rex kept cleaner, and he lived in 
a garage, James would tell him. Rusty 
had heard enough scolding for a few 
minutes, so he trotted around to the front 
yard where he could watch for Betty. He 
longed for her. 

Looking for something to play with. 
Rusty discovered that the front gate had 
been left unlatched and a bit open. The 
gate was one thing the Abbotts had been 
very particular about since Rusty had 
made his home there. Here it was open, 
and Rusty had never been out in the street 


108 RUSTY 

except with Betty, and then he had been 
on the end of a leash. 

Everything was new outside. He 
stuck his nose out and looked up and down 
the street. With Cook busy cleaning the 
kitchen, James in the garage, and his mis¬ 
tress probably telling Cook how sorry she 
was about the mess Rusty had made, there 
was no one to tell him to stay in the yard. 
He put one foot out on the sidewalk and 
looked to see what could be seen. 

He grew bolder and went through the 
gateway. Away up the street he saw an 
automobile, a queer-looking machine 
standing at the curbing. He knew it was 
an automobile. Perhaps if he went up to 
it he might get a ride. He had been to 
ride only once or twice and he did like it. 
He started trotting along the sidewalk. 
As he got nearer, he saw something on 
the sidewalk close to the machine. 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 109 


He hurried a little. He caught the 
smell like that in the kitchen when Cook 
made doughnuts, only it wasn’t so strong. 
He trotted faster, his nose telling him that 
he was getting closer and closer to the 
place where the doughnut smell came 
from. Cook wouldn’t give him a dough¬ 
nut, even if she did give Rex one once in 
a while. He had begged and done all his 
tricks, one after the other, but Cook would 
just laugh and give him a bite of cracker 
or a bit of a cookie, just what he could 
get from Betty at any time. Even Betty 
would not give him a bite of a doughnut. 
Now he was on the trail of some, and Cook 
wasn’t around to tell him he couldn’t have 
one! 

At first he didn’t see any one with the 
automobile, although he looked sharp. He 
trotted up close to the basket that was on 
• the sidewalk, and there it was full of 


110 


RUSTY 


doughnuts! He licked one to see if it 
tasted as good as it smelled, just as a man 
who had been seated in the cab of the 
delivery truck stepped to the sidewalk with 
a book in one hand and a pencil in the 
other. He saw Rusty! 

“Here. Get away from there!” he 
shouted. 

Rusty thought he might want to play, 
and crouched down ready to dodge and 
run. The man thought Rusty was get¬ 
ting ready to jump at him and he began 
looking for something to throw. 

Rusty didn’t understand that, but if the 
man really cared anything about those 
doughnuts he would have come towards 
him instead of looking behind him. Rusty 
grabbed at one and got two. Then he 
turned tail and ran for home as fast as he 
could. And that was very fast for a little 
short-legged dog, because he could hear 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 111 


the man yelling, and Rusty thought he 
was being chased. If he had known that 
the man was really shouting with laughter, 
he would not have hurried so fast that he 
ran right past his gate before he could 
stop. 

He turned around and scrambled back 
as fast as he could, and ran around to the 
back of the house and up the steps to the 
kitchen where Cook was grumbling and 
mopping her floor for the second time that 
afternoon. The door was open, but the 
screen door was closed, which prevented 
Rusty from getting in to show Cook that 
he had a doughnut, whether she liked it 
or not. 

He stood looking in and wagging that 
stump of a tail of his, but Cook was busy 
and didn’t see him. He found it hard to 
speak with two doughnuts in his mouth 
but he could whine a little which he had 


112 RUSTY 

discovered always brought him help 
quickly. 

Cook heard him and stopped her work. 
She looked at him and his mouthful with 
astonishment. “ Where you get dem 
doughnuts? ” she demanded, starting for 
the door. 

Rusty backed away for her to open the 
door and let him dodge in. But Cook 
knew that trick. She didn’t intend to 
have him on her freshly mopped floor 
again. But she was curious. With her 
mop in one hand, she unlatched the door 
with the other. Flourishing her mop, she 
drove Rusty back until she could get her 
big body through the door and close it. 

“ Come here, you rapscallion,” she 
ordered him. “ Gimme dem doughnuts. 
Dey ain’t fitten fer a dog to eat.” 

Rusty didn’t intend to let go of those 
doughnuts without having at least a bite. 


RUSTY IN MISCHIEF 113 

He was willing Cook should have one of 
them if she felt so bad about it. He had 
intended to take only one, anyway. He 
dropped them on the piazza, grabbed one 
of them again, and ran down the steps 
where he took a big bite and tasted it. 
Cook picked up the other and broke it 
open. 

“ Humph,” she said. “ Baker’s truck. 
You nebber did hab no taste in vittals no¬ 
how, you good-for-nothin’ black dog, you. 
Any dog that likes baker’s truck better’n 
ma doughnuts cain’t hab none of mine. 

‘‘ But I’d like to know where you got 
’em. I’ll bet dat front gate’s open, ’cause 
der ain’t nobody bringin’ baker’s truck to 
dis yere house.” 

Mandy waddled around the house and 
closed the gate, and it was many a long 
day before Rusty got another chance to 
slip out of the yard again. 



CHAPTER yill 
eusty’s family caees 

After Rusty had been three weeks in 
the Abbott home, he had affairs running 
pretty well to suit him. He had his two 
beds, his seat at table with Betty, his meals 
with Mittens, his rides with his big mis¬ 
tress, and his play with Cook, James, 
Betty, and her friends, and with Rex, al¬ 
though with Rex most of the play was by 
Rusty. 

With everything going like clockwork,! 



RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 115 


it was natural for him to be a little put 
out when Mittens failed one morning to 
come up from the cellar to be kissed and 
to eat breakfast with him. He had gone 
as usual to the door and waited for Cook 
to open it. At first he was surprised, then 
provoked, when Mittens disturbed the 
routine. Cook seemed to know something 
that he didn’t, for she laughed and told 
him that Mittens had other things of im¬ 
portance to attend to now and he would 
be obliged to eat his breakfast alone. At 
first Rusty didn’t believe her. He said 
Woof ” softly twice, and tried to see 
down in the dark cellar before he gave up 
hope. 

Being very hungry, because Betty had 
given him only two tiny bits of toast that 
morning, he could not wait any longer. 
Slowly he walked to his dish and took a 
few bites before he looked around to see 


116 RUSTY 

if Mittens were not on her way to join 
him. But she didn’t come, and Rusty, 
very much worried, ate a little more be¬ 
fore he caught sight of Cook with a dish 
of milk in one hand starting down cellar. 
In the other hand she had a flashlight. 
Something unusual was going on. 

Rusty didn’t go down cellar very often, 
because Cook didn’t like to have him. 
She said that a kitty with four white feet 
kept perfectly clean down there, but when 
a black dog, without a white spot on him 
went into the cellar he came up so dirty 
that he was a disgrace to a nice home. 

But this morning Rusty was so worried 
that he followed Cook without her know¬ 
ing it. Into the back part of the cellar 
she went, far beyond where the cellar 
lights shone. She turned on her flash¬ 
light and kept right on going where Rusty 
had never been before. Cook was talking 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 117 

to herself in a low voice and seemed to 
know just where she was going. 

When she stopped in a very dark corner 
Rusty saw by her light that Mittens was 
in a basket and with her were three little 
bits of things that Cook called kittens. 
Mittens seemed perfectly happy and let 
Rusty kiss her, but she didn’t get out of 
the basket. Rusty hurried around to the 
other side and tried to get in with Mittens. 
Cook caught him by his collar and pulled 
him back. 

“ Come back here,” she said. “ Mittens 
don’ want you botherin’ her babies. You 
got no business down here in her bedroom, 
anyway.” 

Placing the saucer of milk close by the 
basket, Cook tucked Rusty under one arm 
and started for the kitchen. Rusty kept 
looking back, but he couldn’t see in the 
dark as Mittens could, and he didn’t know 


118 RUSTY 

whether she was eating her breakfast or 
not. 

For three days Rusty ate his lonely 
breakfasts. He mooned around the house 
and found it hard work to play, even with 
Betty. He began to think that he never 
should have Mittens’ company again, 
when one morning he found Mittens in 
her basket in the kitchen with her three 
babies trying to stagger around on their 
wobbly little legs. Rusty was so delighted 
that he rushed at the basket to kiss his 
friend and was surprised and hurt when 
she raised her back at him and spit. 

“ Ah tole you,” Cook warned him, “ to 
leave her alone. She don’t want no ’ten- 
tions from you when she’s wid her babies.” 

Rusty couldn’t understand what was 
wrong, although he spent hours watching 
Mittens with her children. He saw her 
wash them one by one, and feed them all 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 110 

at the same time, and let them crawl over 
her and play with her tail. It was an in¬ 
teresting study for Rusty, and he was a 
close student. 

Even when Mittens would leave the 
basket. Rusty would sit there on guard. 
Once he put his nose down to one, and for 
the first time in his life he was scratched. 
Such an unpleasant surprise brought a 
yip ” from him, and also brought Mit¬ 
tens from somewhere. She jumped into 
the basket and asked each one what had 
happened. She must have told them that 
Rusty would not hurt them, for she 
climbed out again and went away about 
her business. 

After that, the kittens seemed to accept 
Rusty as something big and black that 
their mother was willing to have around, 
although Cook called him a nuisance. 
They played and tumbled in and out of 


120 RUSTY 

their basket and scampered and slid over 
the kitchen floor to the great delight of 
Cook and Rusty, causing the little dog to 
spend most of his time for the next few 
weeks ‘‘ under foot ” in the kitchen. 

Rusty had been much interested in the 
way Mittens carried her babies. When 
one day he found one of the kittens out 
of the basket and trying to climb in, he 
carefully took it in his mouth, just as he 
was sure Mittens did, and in spite of its 
cries, lifted it and dropped it in the basket. 
Climbing in, he proceeded to give that 
kitten the very wettest bath it ever had 
had. He was just about to start on one 
of the others when Mittens returned from 
a trip down cellar. She made one leap 
into the basket and when Rusty saw how 
angry she was, he jumped out and, very 
much offended, went off by himself. 

Betty was in school and he couldn’t And 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 121 


his big mistress. Very much disgusted 
with life, he went up to Betty’s room in¬ 
tending to take a nap on his blanket and 
forget everything in sleep. He jumped 
up on his blanket and sat there for a 
minute wondering if there wasn’t some¬ 
thing he could do instead of go to sleep. 
One thing he was sure about, and that was 
that it was the very last time he would 
help Mittens with her family. In fact, 
just then he doubted if he would ever eat 
breakfast with her again. He was quite 
sure he would never kiss her good-morn¬ 
ing. 

While he sat there thinking how unkind 
Mittens had been after all the care he had 
given her babies, he noticed the big rag 
doll, the favorite of all Betty’s children. 
It was in a crib that stood by Betty’s bed 
where Betty put her to bed each night 
before she climbed into her own. He 


12f 


ausT^ 


looked at ’Lizbeth very long and hard, and 
suddenly he made up his mind that if 
Mittens could have three tiny babies, he 
would have one big one. 

Sleep was forgotten. He jumped 
down and sniffed. ’Lizbeth did not spit 
or slap at him. He stood up and kissed 
her. She must have liked it, for she didn’t 
move. Very, very carefully he took one 
arm in his mouth and pulled. ’Lizbeth 
did not cry, and it couldn’t be wrong, be¬ 
cause no one called to him to stop. Tug¬ 
ging and pulling, he finally dragged the 
big doll out from under the bed-clothes to 
the floor. 

Around and around her he walked, 
smelling of her, kissing her, moving her, 
first with his nose, and then with a paw. 
Never a word or a cry did she make. 
Rusty lay down beside her and pretended 
to go to sleep. But the floor was hard. 


RUSTY^S FAMILY CARES 

Besides Mittens had a basket, and he 
wanted one. He remembered that when 
he went riding mornings with his mistress, 
she carried one, and they brought home 
lots of packages in it that men in stores 
placed there. It was big and round, and 
was just what he wanted. He trotted oflp 
to find it. 

It wasn’t in his mistress’s room, and it 
wasn’t in the big room downstairs, or in 
the kitchen. He poked his nose in where 
a door was open just a crack, and there he 
smelled it. Scratching and poking with 
his paw and his nose, he got the door to 
the closet open wide enough to squeeze in. 
On the floor was just as nice a basket as 
Mittens had. 

It was a tough job getting it out of the 
closet. The basket was wider than Rusty 
and the door stuck some, but by hard 
work he managed finally to get it into the 


124 


RUSTY 


hall. When he let go to rest and catch 
his breath, the basket wobbled about, for 
it was half-round on the bottom. He 
watched it until it stopped, and then put 
one foot in, but it tipped and the handle 
banged him on the back. 

He backed away and studied it. Mit¬ 
tens’ basket did not act like that, he knew, 
because he had been in it several times. 
He walked around and tried from the 
other side, but again the handle banged 
down on his back. Perhaps the hall was 
a bad place. Into the big front room he 
dragged it, but when he tried to step 
into it, it rolled as it had in the hall. But 
Rusty was a determined little chap, and 
this time he kept his foot in and put the 
other front foot in, too. He found that 
the basket steadied, but when he got his 
other two feet in, it was like a teeter for 
a few seconds, and when he tried to curl 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 125 

clown, the basket moved every which 
Avay. 

But he didn’t intend to let the basket 
fool him. With the basket acting like a 
small boat in a rough sea, he twisted and 
turned until he was satisfied, and then 
flopped down. He wasn’t really com¬ 
fortable, because the basket tipped so that 
he was lying partly on his back, but that 
was better than not having a basket of his 
own. 

Suddenly he started up. He had his 
basket, but where was his baby? He had 
been so busy getting the basket that he 
had forgotten all about ’Lizbeth. Out he 
jumped and dashed upstairs, the basket 
rolling around on the rug. This time he 
wasn’t so careful how he picked up the 
doll, because he knew now that she didn’t 
cry out. Tugging and pulling, step¬ 
ping on her, straddling her, he walked and 


125 RUSTY 

tumbled downstairs and into the big 
room. 

The basket was resting against a chair 
leg, and that made it much easier to get 
in. What a struggle he did have! First 
he tried to lift ’Lizbeth into the basket, 
but he couldn’t get enough of her in to 
stay there. Climbing in himself, he tried 
to reach ’Lizbeth to drag her in after him 
but the basket tipped on its side and 
dumped him put. 

By that time Rusty had become thor¬ 
oughly in earnest. Growling to show 
that he was not to allow a basket to defeat 
him, he grabbed tight hold of ’Lizbeth, 
and in spite of all the rolling and pitching 
the basket could do, he finally got in with 
part of ’Lizbeth. Her head and body 
were down in the basket, but her long legs 
hung over the side. That didn’t bother 
either of them, and with a long sigh of 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 127 

satisfaction that he had at last got a basket 
and a child to care for, he settled down for 
the nap he had intended to take after his 
trouble with Mittens. 

That was the way Mrs. Abbott found 
him when she came home and went into 
the big front room. She didn’t see him 
at first, because the basket had managed 
to roll into one corner. When she heard 
a satisfied sigh from Rusty, she looked in 
that direction and exclaimed in astonish¬ 
ment. Rusty’s tail was wagging and the 
basket was wobbling as he moved. 

“ Why, Rusty! ” she said. “ Who put 
you there? Where did you get that 
basket? It’s my market-basket. And 
that’s ’Lizbeth! Is Betty home? She 
can’t be yet. Mandy! Mandyl” she 
called. 

Mandy, hurrying as fast as such a fat 
person could, came from the kitchen. 


128 RUSTY 

It was another of those times when 
Rusty saw those two women he loved—one 
white and his mistress, the other the black 
one who fed him—sit down and laugh. It 
was a day when Rusty had managed to 
surprise every one. 

Not even Betty’s welcome call of 
“ Mother, I’m home ” made Rusty budge 
from his basket. He wanted Betty to see 
him with his child. At first Betty was 
inclined to be angry because Rusty had 
taken her very special doll. But she soon 
got over that, and laughed with her mother 
and Mandy. 

That afternoon Betty went down-town 
with James in the big car and came back 
with a nice new doll, smaller than ’Lizbeth 
but almost like her, which she offered to 
Rusty for his very own. 

Rusty, however, would have nothing to 
do with the new one. He had adopted 


RUSTY’S FAMILY CARES 129 


’Lizbeth for his own, and after many at¬ 
tempts to make him change his mind Betty 
gave up and took the new one for herself. 
Each night she helped Rusty get settled 
in his basket with his adopted daughter 
before she put her own to bed, so she had 
just that much more to do before she, 
herself, could climb under the bedclothes, 
for Rusty, after a few minutes in the 
basket, would get out, say his prayers, and 
be lifted to his blanket on the foot of the 
bed. He didn’t consider it necessary to 
spend the night caring for his child. 



CHAPTER IX 

RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 

Usually Rusty had enough business of 
his own to keep him busy from morning 
until bedtime, but there were times when 
he felt that it was necessary to put his 
own affairs one side and give aid and 
sympathy to those who needed his help. 
He was unselfish, and always willing to 
drop whatever he was doing for his own 

130 


























RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 131 

amusement to do a favor for one of his 
beloved family. Especially was he free 
with genuine sympathy. 

And no one knew that better than 
Betty. Sometimes his little mistress felt 
that the whole world had gone wrong. It 
might have been something at school, or 
a disagreement with Jennie or Pauline, or 
even because Mother did not wish her to 
do something she had set her heart on do¬ 
ing. At such times Betty called Rusty 
and shut herself in her room with him. 
Into Rusty’s big ears Betty poured all 
her troubles. 

In Betty’s lap, with her arms tight 
about him, or stretched on the bed with one 
of her arms over him, he remained as long 
as she wanted him. When it seemed the 
best thing to do, he kissed her hand or 
her face. Rusty knew exactly the proper 
time for those caresses. 


132 RUSTY 

But it was not only to Betty that he 
gave his time. The three days that his 
big mistress remained in bed Rusty hardly 
left her room. Mittens and Betty both 
had to eat their meals without him, and 
what little he ate was brought to him by 
Sarah and served in his mistress’s room. 
But his big heart knew that he was a com¬ 
fort to her. He heard the doctor tell her 
that Rusty did her as much good as the 
medicines. 

It was after Mrs. Abbott’s brief illness 
that another duty was added to the others 
he had taken upon himself. She wanted 
Rusty with her all the time he could spare 
from Betty and her friends. So Rusty 
felt obliged to give up an hour nearly 
every morning to ride down-town with his 
big mistress while she did her marketing. 
Once in a great while they drove around 
to the office where his master was, and then 


RUSTY GOES TO CAJVIP 183 


Rusty had a great time for a few minutes 
hustling around through both rooms to 
see that everything was as he had left it 
the first morning that he had met his 
master. 

When he got home, he knew that his 
work was done for the time being, and that 
he could attend to his own affairs. The 
first thing was to pretend that he didn’t 
believe the ride was over. When his mis¬ 
tress got out. Rusty sat staring straight 
ahead through the windshield. 

“All right, James,” she would say. 
“ Drive him to the garage and leave him 
shut in the car I ” Looking at Rusty very 
severely she would ask him if he heard 
that he was to be shut up so that he could 
not get out to play with Betty. 

Rusty would look at her very politely 
and when she had finished would settle 
himself on the seat, look straight ahead 


184 ' RUSTY 

and say “ Woof.” Laughing, James would 
drive to the garage, back the car into place 
and get out. But Rusty would sit right 
where he was—until James took off his 
coat and hung it up. Then he was sure 
that the ride was ended and he would de¬ 
mand to get out. James would scratch 
his head, pretend he was thinking whether 
to risk a scolding from his mistress and let 
him out, or keep him in there. When he 
did finally open the door. Rusty would 
race to Rex, that never went with the car, 
to tell him about the wonderful ride he 
had had. 

Jumping about, and racing as close to 
Rex’s nose as he could get. Rusty would 
shout at him that he had had a wonderful 
time and had seen lots of dogs that he had 
barked at. Some of the time he had ridden 
on the front seat with his paws on the 
windshield frame, and some of the time he 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 185 


had stood on the seat with his head hang¬ 
ing out of the door window so that he 
could see everything. And then, he would 
say, the rest of the time he had been on 
the back seat or on his mistress’s lap while 
she talked to him and told him about 
people and places they passed. 

All this Rex was told time after time, 
but he never let it excite him. Occasion¬ 
ally he would open one eye, but most of 
the time he didn’t even trouble to do that. 
It was one very hot day after Rusty had 
been especially talkative and had finally 
nipped one of Rex’s ears to try to make 
him pay more attention, that Rex lost 
patience. 

He waited until Rusty stopped for an 
instant in front of him and had looked 
away. Quickly he raised one of his huge 
front paws and brought it down on 
Rusty’s back, pinning him to the ground. 


186 


RUSTY 


How Rusty did howl and cry! James 
and Cook both rushed to see what had 
happened, but when they saw, they 
laughed and went back to their work. 
Rusty was not being hurt, but he did think 
it unfair for a great big dog like Rex to 
play so roughly with a little dog like him. 

When Rusty began to whine and whim¬ 
per, good-natured Rex raised his paw and 
let his captive go. Rusty bounded away 
out of reach and told Rex that he ought 
to be ashamed that a great dog like him 
couldn’t hold a little fellow like Rusty 
after he had caught him. But Rex just 
smiled and went to sleep, satisfied that 
Rusty would not again nip one of his ears. 

When Betty’s school closed for the long 
vacation, everybody at the Abbott home 
became very busy. It seemed to Rusty 
as if every single room was topsy-turvy. 
Trunks and bags and grips were every- 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 137 

where, clothes were spread out on beds, 
and shoes were all over every room. Betty 
and her mother and Sarah were continu¬ 
ally putting articles in trunks and bags, 
then taking them out again and searching 
for something they wanted to put in a cer¬ 
tain trunk. Rusty wore himself out help¬ 
ing. It was very discouraging to be told 
to ‘‘ drop that shoe ” or “ bring back that 
tennis-ball. That’s one of my good 
ones.” 

Betty, who always before had wanted 
Rusty with her all the time, put him out 
of her room, and shut the door because 
she said, “ I can’t do anything with that 
dog poking his nose into everything. He’s 
taken one of my old camp shoes some¬ 
where, and I can’t find it,” she complained 
in a loud voice. 

“ Here it is, dear,” replied her mother. 
“ He brought it in for me to pack.” 


138 RUSTY 

For three days, that’s the way things 
went in the Abbott home. They were 
preparing to move to their summer camp 
on a lake away up in Vermont, almost a 
day’s ride from where they had lived since 
Rusty knew them. When night came, 
Rusty was so tired that he did not wait 
for Betty to go to bed, but wearily climbed 
the stairs, and without being undressed or 
saying his prayers jumped on the bed and 
flopped down on his blanket. 

When Rusty hurried downstairs to his 
breakfast on the morning of the fourth 
day, he found that his master had not gone 
to his office but was eating breakfast with 
the others. James was out in the yard 
with both cars standing in the drive at the 
side of the house. Catching sight of them 
from his perch on Betty’s chair. Rusty did 
not wait for even a bite. He leaped down 
and insisted on being let out. He knew 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 189 

if the cars were there that some one was 
going to ride, and Rusty was always the 
first, except James, to get into a car for a 
ride. 

“ Let him out, Betty,” laughed Mr. 
Abbott. “ He will not eat now, and it 
won’t hurt him as much as it would for 
him to eat when he is so excited.” 

James was busy packing trunks and 
grips and packages into the station car. 
Even Cook had come out with a big bag 
to be packed. It was a wonderfully 
exciting time, and there was much running 
hack into the house for something that had 
been forgotten. 

Never before had any one been so slow 
in getting started, which made Rusty very 
impatient. The biggest surprise was 
when James boosted big Rex up into the 
station car, where he stood with trunks and 
bags and packages all around him. Rex 


140 RUSTY 

didn’t make a bit of fuss about it. Noth¬ 
ing excited Rex. 

At last all was ready, and Mr. Abbott 
got into Mrs. Abbott’s big car with Mrs. 
Abbott and Betty and several bags and 
packages. James and the cook and the 
maid all got into the station car with 
Rex. 

“ Here, Betty,” said her father. “ Take 
this bundle of excitement and keep him 
out of my face. How do you suppose a 
man can drive a car with a crazy dog 
climbing all over the steering-wheel? ” 

Betty grabbed Rusty and hugged him 
up tight while he stuck his head out of the 
open window. For a long time they 
drove, leaving the city and going out into 
the country, where Rusty had never been 
and where he began to see things that were 
strange. Once he barked at some animal, 
and when it said “ Moo,” Rusty nearly 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 141 

jumped through the open window, he was 
so surprised. 

After two hours, Mr. Abbott put on 
the brakes and slowly brought the car to 
a stop at the roadside. 

“ Better let that dog out and have a 
drink in the brook there,” he said to 
Betty. “ It’s pretty hot for humans 
and dogs both. A drink will do us 
all good.” 

James pulled up behind Mr. Abbott’s 
car and helped Rex scramble out. The 
big St. Bernard rushed to the brook and 
waded right in to cool off. Rusty was 
straining at the leash, but Mr. Abbott held 
tight, saying that he could not let him get 
into the water now, or he would ruin all 
the clothes and tempers in the Abbott 
family. “ When we get to camp,” he told 
Rusty, ‘‘ you may swim all you want.” 

When Rex had had time to get his drink 


142 RUSTY 

and cool off in the cold brook water, James 
persuaded him to come out. Getting him 
into the station car again without getting 
Mr. Abbott and James wet was another 
matter. With lots of grunting and 
laughter they at last managed to get him 
boosted in again, and were on their way 
once more. 

With the car moving along over a dusty 
road through thick woods. Rusty became 
much excited. He tried hard to tell Betty 
that he ought to be allowed to get out and 
scurry around and smell all the strange 
smells that came faintly to his sensitive 
nose even as they drove swiftly along. 
He was still begging to get out when Mr. 
Abbott turned the car into a farmyard 
and stopped at a big gate. 

Mr. Brown, the owner of the farm, 
came from the barn and let them through, 
while Rusty barked an excited comment 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 143 

on everything. Mr. Brown came to the 
car to talk with his friend, Mr. Abbott, 
and to greet Mrs. Abbott and Betty. He 
pulled Rusty’s ears and told him he 
would surely have a grand time at the lake 
all summer, which made Rusty all the 
more anxious to get there. 

In a short time they turned a corner in 
the woods, and there was the lake, with the 
first of five cottages that were grouped at 
one end. The Abbotts were the last to 
arrive, and when all the others heard the 
cars coming, they rushed out to shout 
greetings to Betty and her parents, and 
to exclaim over Rusty. The other chil¬ 
dren climbed up on the station car to hug 
Rex in spite of warnings that he was wet 
and dirty. They didn’t care, they said, 
so long as Rex had come again. And be¬ 
sides they were dirty, anyway. No fun 
being in camp if you had to keep clean. 


144 


RUSTY 


They shouted at Cook to beg for cookies 
and doughnuts, as if they had no one to 
cook for them in their own camps. It was 
plain to Rusty that the folks in this new 
place were just as nice as those he had 
met in the other home of his master and 
mistress. 

Mr. Abbott kept blowing his horn for 
the children to get away from the car so 
that he could drive on to his own cottage, 
which was at the far end of the row. 
He had to drive so carefully that it seemed 
a long time. When he finally stopped the 
car at the rear door, he said to Betty: 

“ Now let that crazy black thing out of 
this car. He won’t go far, and he will 
choke himself if you try to hold him any 
longer.” 

Betty unsnapped the catch on the leash, 
and Rusty tumbled out, to yelp and jump 
and run without getting anywhere except 


RUSTY GOES TO CAMP 145 


under the feet of every person in the party 
every minute. 

“ I’ll bet I’ve fallen over that pup forty 
times,” grumbled Mr. Abbott as he came 
out of the cottage half an hour later for 
another load of grips and bundles. “ I’ve 
stepped on him, kicked him, and fallen 
over him, and before I can take another 
step, he’s right between my legs again.” 

“ I don’t see how that can be,” said 
James, “ because he’s been under my feet 
or between my legs ever since I got out of 
the car.” 

“ Where is he now? ” asked Betty. 
“ I’ll take him over to see Alice and 
Joyce.” 

“ He was digging a shaft or a mine or 
something near the front steps,” her father 
answered. “Let him dig it deep enough 
so he will fall into it and stay there until 
we can get this stuff into the cottage. If 


146 RUSTY 

you don’t, some one will break a leg over 
him.” 

“ He must be trying to get Chippy,” 
cried Betty as she ran around the cottage 
calling for her pet. But he wasn’t there. 
She ran down to the wharf, but only Rex 
was there, lying in the cool mud. Thor¬ 
oughly frightened, Betty ran back towards 
the cottage, calling for Rusty at the top 
of her voice. 

Her father came on tiptoe out of the 
front door, fingers on lips. 

“ Don’t call him,” he whispered. “ He’s 
upstairs, tuckered out and asleep on your 
bed. Leave him alone until we can get 
settled.” 

And so it was that Rusty missed sev¬ 
eral hours of a very busy time that after¬ 
noon and evening while the summer home 
was being settled. 



CHAPTER X 

RUSTY LEARNS TWO LESSONS 

It was not until Rusty awakened after 
the first night in camp and had gone down 
to breakfast that he remembered some¬ 
thing. Mittens and her family had been 
left behind! He didn’t know that Jennie 
and Pauline had taken them to their home 
to care for them, so he felt very sorry for 
them. After a few bites of Betty’s 

147 







148 RUSTY 

breakfast he trotted out to the kitchen and 
looked around for the door that led to the 
cellar. But there was no such door! 

Cook knew what he was looking for, 
and explained that he would not eat 
breakfast with Mittens all summer. Not 
having had much to eat the day before 
and having worked very hard, Rusty was 
so hungry that he ate a very big break¬ 
fast without once lifting his head to look 
for Mittens. He hurried his meal, be¬ 
cause he could hear Betty calling to 
Alice and Joyce about going out in the 
boat, and Rusty did not intend to be left 
behind. 

While he didn’t yet know Alice and 
Joyce as well as he knew Jennie and 
Pauline, they were Betty’s friends and 
nice to play with. Having gobbled his 
meal, he asked Cook please to open the 
door, and dashed around the cottage to- 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 149 

wards the wharf where he heard the voices 
of his playmates. 

There had been so much to do after 
they arrived the afternoon before that he 
had not had time to run down a stray scent 
or two that had come to his nose. He had 
spent a few minutes digging for Chippy 
near the front steps, but gave that up until 
he had more time to give to what promised 
to be a long job. Now he was on his way 
for a boat-ride. He was not sure that he 
should like it, but he felt that he ought to 
try it once. 

Instead of keeping his mind on one 
thing—the boat-ride—he had his nose 
close to the ground as he ran towards the 
wharf. He remembered that somewhere 
along there yesterday he had caught a 
new scent. Suddenly he got it again. 
Some animal had been there! He circled 
about quickly, trying to find which way 


150 


RUSTY 


it had gone, but even then his ears were 
wide open to hear what Betty and her 
friends were doing. 

Finding that the trail led off towards 
the brush at the end of Mr. Abbott’s lot, 
Rusty stopped once to be sure that the 
girls were where he could see and hear 
them. He didn’t intend that they should 
go off and leave him. He saw Alice run 
towards her own cottage after something 
they had forgotten, which would give him 
time for a short trip. With so many new 
things to see and do. Rusty found that 
camping was great fun. Giving one last 
look towards the wharf, he was off once 
more with his nose down. Even though 
he went farther than he had intended, he 
could still hear the girls calling, which 
gave him confidence that they would wait 
for him. A little farther along, he caught 
sight of the animal. 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 151 

“ Cat,” he barked after one quick look. 
With another delighted yelp he leaped 
forward to the chase. But Rusty had 
been very much mistaken. In another 
minute he was yelping from surprise and 
the stinging pain in his eyes. Blinded, 
he turned to run, but because he could not 
see, he bumped against a tree which 
brought a louder yelp than before. Stop¬ 
ping, he pawed at his eyes in an effort to 
clear them. He had become turned 
around and, so strong was the strange 
smell all about him, he couldn’t tell which 
way he had come. 

Away off in the distance he could hear 
Betty calling: “ Hi, Rusty. Hi, Rusty. 
Where are you? What’s the matter? ” 

He answered with his loudest barks as 
he tried to go in the direction from which 
Betty’s voice came to him. The stinging 
pain in his eyes was slowly passing, which 


152 RUSTY 

let him see more clearly, but he couldn’t 
smell his own tracks because of the much 
stronger other scent. He could hear 
Betty, Alice, and Joyce crashing through 
the brush as they called his name. He 
barked again to tell them he was coming 
as fast as he could. 

But the girls stopped suddenly. ‘‘ It’s 
a skunk! Rusty’s been after a skunk! 
Come away quick,” he heard Betty cry. 

Rusty’s keen ears told him that the 
girls were running away from him instead 
of towards him. Now that his eyes had 
cleared some, he ran faster, but he did not 
catch his playmates, who, when he reached 
the Abbott cottage, had gone inside' and 
shut the door tight. 

Rusty asked nicely to be allowed inside 
that Betty might comfort him. But no 
one would open the door. He tried the 
kitchen door, only to have Cook shout 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 158 

through the window to him to go some¬ 
where and bury himself. Remembering 
the shed where the cars had been placed 
made him think of James. He hurried to 
him for sympathy. When others needed 
sympathy, Rusty was always free with it, 
but in his own need of it his friends turned 
away. Before James saw him. Rusty had 
jumped on him as he began to tell him his 
troubles. 

James, wearing overalls, had been dust¬ 
ing the car Mr. Abbott had driven to camp 
when Rusty appeared. 

“ Whew,” exclaimed James, holding 
his nose with one hand. “ Get away from 
me! You smell worse than the fellow that 
sprayed you. Get away, I say. Here, 
don’t go near Rex. And come away from 
that car! You’ll have everything all 
smelled up.” 

Rusty backed away, whining because he 


154 RUSTY 

did not understand such treatment. Never 
before had every one acted like this. He 
didn’t know what was the best thing for 
him to do. 

James looked at Rusty as he scratched 
his head with the hand that was not hold¬ 
ing his nose. After some thought, he 
pawed around in the station car, talking 
to himself as he did so. He slipped 
something into a pocket and something 
else into another before he called Rusty 
to him. 

Rusty hesitated. Something was go¬ 
ing to happen he was sure, and he doubted 
if he would like it. But James, being a 
good friend, he walked to him. Instead 
of picking him up James caught him by 
the collar, tied a string to it and marched 
towards the lake. 

By that time Rusty knew he was in for 
a bath. He hung back. James, however, 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 155 


marched right along so that Rusty found 
it useless to dig his claws in and hang 
back. Betty and her friends, watching 
from the cottage windows, hurt Rusty 
with their laughter as they told James 
how sorry they were for him. Not one 
of them was sorry for Rusty when he 
needed their sympathy very much. It 
was a time “ when a fellow needs a 
friend.” 

Out on the wharf James marched, drag¬ 
ging Rusty behind him down into one of 
the boats. The water being very shallow 
at one end James lifted Rusty overboard 
and began at once to lather him with a 
strong-smelling soap that Rusty despised. 
From one of his pockets he drew a scrub¬ 
bing-brush. He lathered and scrubbed 
as Rusty never had been lathered and 
scrubbed before in all the times James or 
Betty had given him baths. Rusty 


156 


RUSTY 


whined and cried and struggled, but the 
more he protested, the harder James 
scrubbed. 

“ Go chasing a skunk, will you? ” he 
said between clenched teeth. “ Get my 
overalls all smelled up, will you? Don’t 
you know anything at all, you foolish dog, 
you? Any intelligent dog would know a 
skunk from a cat. Come here to me, you 
scallawag, you, while I scrub you some 
more. I’ll get that smell off of you if I 
have to scrub the hair and hide right off. 
You hear me! ” 

Betty, Alice, and Joyce came down to 
the wharf calling to James as they came 
to be sure and keep tight hold on Rusty. 
They were laughing and calling him a 
poor foolish dog, which made him very 
unhappy. A bath like the one he was get¬ 
ting was nothing to laugh about. 

“ I’ll take him with me. Miss Betty,” 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 157 


said James, “ dry him off, and keep him 
wrapped up in an old blanket I have in 
the station car. Then I’ll comb him and 
brush him. When he’s good and dry after 
he runs a while—unless he chases Jimmy 
Skunk again—he’ll be all right to go into 
the house. I’d let him dry off in the sun, 
but the first thing he would do would be 
to roll in the dirt.” 

That shows how much James thought 
of Rusty. Working over a dog that had 
been foolish enough to chase a skunk 
is not a pleasant job. While James 
grumbled and scolded a good deal, he 
really was not cross, but actually sorry for 
the little dog. Finishing his scrubbing, he 
put Rusty on the wharf to let him shake 
himself as dry as a dog can, while James 
kept firm hold of the rope. 

Rusty whined and begged to go with 
the girls in the other boat which they had 


158 


RUSTY 


pushed away from the wharf to be out of 
range of Rusty when he shook himself. 
Alice called to James that they were will¬ 
ing to take Rusty with them, but James 
replied that to make him stay in the shed 
a while would be punishment which might 
make him remember not to chase a skunk 
again. He marched right back to the shed 
with Rusty hanging back, looking after 
the girls who had gone out on the lake 
for their first row without taking him with 
them. 

The first pleasant thing that had hap¬ 
pened to Rusty in the whole morning was 
finding that Cook had brought his basket 
with ’Lizbeth in it for him to lie in. James 
put the basket near the station car, tied 
Rusty’s rope to one of the wheels, spread 
an old robe in the basket, and motioned 
Rusty to get in. Rusty scratched at the 
robe until he had uncovered one of ’Liz- 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 159 


beth’s arms. He seized that and dragged 
her out of the basket. James laughed, 
fixed the robe again, tucked ’Lizbeth in, 
and after he had rubbed Rusty as dry as 
possible with a cloth Cook had brought 
him, he let him get into the basket and 
covered both Rusty and ’Lizbeth over 
with the robe. 

Rusty peeked and saw James take off 
his overalls and go out back of the garage 
where he hung them on a tree. When he 
came back and saw Rusty watching him, 
he told him that one dog he knew was 
mighty lucky that a friend of his had two 
pairs of overalls. If this friend had not 
had the two pairs, he said, a certain spaniel 
he knew, that had been such a fool as to 
chase a skunk, would have been tied to a 
tree out in the woods and left there until 
he did not smell bad. Lots of things 
James told him Rusty did not believe, and 


160 


RUSTY 


that was one of them, so he just tucked 
his head down on ’Lizbeth and pretended 
to go to sleep. 

James, having finished dusting off the 
car, brushed his clothes before starting to 
go to Mr. Brown’s farm on an errand for 
Mrs. Abbott. James, being young, liked 
to walk through the woods, even when he 
could have driven if he had wished to do 
so. Rusty begged to go, and James de¬ 
cided that a run in the fresh air would 
help to take away what little was left of 
the skunk smell. 

Rusty, very subdued, trotted close to 
James’ heels most of the way, stopping 
only once to bark at a grey squirrel that 
whisked around a tree-trunk and scolded 
about dogs coming into his country. 
Rusty dared him to come down on the 
ground. They were arguing about it 
when James whistled and told Rusty to 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 161 


let the little animals alone; that they had 
more right there than he had. 

They had almost reached the barnyard 
when a black-and-white pig, only a few 
weeks old, that had escaped from the pen 
where the mother and her nine other babies 
were staying, ran across the path in front 
of James and Rusty, squealing loudly at 
sight of them. 

Rusty started with a delighted yelp. 
There was an animal that would run, and 
how it did squeal and dodge this way and 
that! Rusty pretended not to hear James 
call him to come back, but after he had 
run a few more steps, he remembered what 
had happened that morning. He decided 
that it would be better to mind, for he 
did not know what this kind of an animal 
might do. 

He waited for James to come up, then 
started ahead again when he saw big Shep 


162 


RUSTY 


coming around the corner of the barn on 
the run. Trouble anywhere on the farm 
always found Shep hurrying to get to the 
scene to straighten out matters. He had 
many farm duties. He drove the cows 
to pasture in the morning, and he rounded 
them up in the late afternoon and drove 
them back to the barn to be milked. He 
followed his master wherever his work 
took him, watched the horses for him, 
guarded the wagon when in town, and 
kept other dogs from getting among the 
sheep. 

In another minute Mr. Brown ap¬ 
peared. He, too, was coming to see what 
was wrong with his pigs, for the escaped 
piggy had made so much noise that all his 
brothers and sisters and their mother were 
squealing and grunting. 

James told Mr. Brown what had hap¬ 
pened. “ That’s all right,” the farmer re- 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 163 


plied. “ Shep will round him up so I can 
catch him.” 

James picked up Rusty. “Now, you 
young rascal, you,” he said, pulling one of 
Rusty’s ears, “ you keep quiet and watch 
what an intelligent, sensible, trained dog 
can do. Maybe you’ll learn something. 
You could do this just as well as Shep if 
you would keep your mouth shut and 
tend to business. Of course,” he added, 
“ you are very young and things are 
strange out in the country here, but be¬ 
fore you go home you will learn quite a 
lot.” 

While James was talking. Rusty was 
whining and wriggling in his arms. But 
he was watching Shep, that had trotted 
around and headed off the little pig and 
started him back towards the pen. Shep 
didn’t say anything, but it was a crazy- 
looking trail they made. The pig dodged 


164 


RirSTY 


this way and that, trying to go any way 
but in the direction of the pen. But Shep 
was even better at dodging than the pig, 
and every minute found them getting 
nearer and nearer to the pen, where the 
pig’s mother and brothers and sisters were 
squealing. 

Mr. Brown stood close to the gate ready 
to open it when Shep had driven the pig 
near enough. Pretty soon Shep got the 
little pig running around the outside of 
the pen, and when he drove him around 
to the side on which the gate was, Mr. 
Brown opened it and the little fellow ran 
in, where he received a noisy welcome 
from the others. 

Shep trotted up to his master, who 
patted his head, and told him that he 
didn’t know how he would ever get the 
farm work done without his help. Rusty 
barked his excited approval, because 


RUSTY’S TWO LESSONS 165 

Rusty believed in giving praise where 
praise was due. James put Rusty down, 
and he rushed over to Shep for a little 
talk. 

“ Oh, that’s nothing,” Shep told the 
little fellow in dog language. “You just 
want to keep after a cow or a pig or a 
sheep; not hurry them, you know, but just 
keep them moving the way you want them 
to go. They don’t know as much as we 
dogs do, and they think it is smart to 
bother their master by hiding or trying to 
dodge away. This pig business doesn’t 
happen very often, and I’m much obliged 
to you for letting me know about it, be¬ 
cause if the little fellow had wandered off 
into the woods I’d have had a long job 
getting him back, and I have so much 
other work to do that I could not really 
spare the time.” 

Shep said good-bye and gave Rusty an 


166 RUSTY 

invitation to come and see him some after¬ 
noon when he was not so busy as he was 
in the morning, and Rusty trotted hack to 
James very proud of the fact that Shep 
had given him credit. He tried to tell 
James all about it, but James said that he 
wasn’t entitled to any of the credit, because 
he had not been trying to do any good but 
had just been out for fun. ‘‘ But,” said 
James, “ I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if 
you had learned two things this morning: 
to leave skunks alone, and not to make so 
much noise whenever you are really work- 



CHAPTER XI 
rusty’s busy day 


The excitement of the morning made 
Rusty quite tired by the time he returned 
to camp from Mr. Brown’s farm. His 
playmates were still out on the lake in the 
light row-boat, Mrs. Abbott and Cook 
were busy in the cottage, Rex was 
stretched out on the shore of the lake 
where it was damp and cool, and James 


167 



108 


RUSTY 


was fussing with one of the cars, because 
Mr. Abbott had said that he must go back 
to his office for a few days and would start 
immediately after lunch. There being 
nothing to do, Rusty flopped down on the 
piazza for a nap. 

He had scarcely shut his eyes when Mr. 
Abbott came out of the cottage in a bath¬ 
ing-suit and announced that he and Rusty 
were going for a swim before lunch. 
Rusty was ready in an instant, although 
he never had been swimming. But any¬ 
thing his master did. Rusty was ready 
and willing to try. Down to the wharf 
and into one of the boats Mr. Abbott 
and Rusty went. He was to have his 
boat-ride even if the girls had not waited 
for him. He got up in the bow, and as 
the boat moved through the water under 
the powerful strokes of Mr. Abbott at 
the oars, Rusty barked from sheer delight 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 109 

at the motion and the little waves the boat 
made as it went through the water. 

Having reached deep water Mr. Abbott 
stopped rowing, pulled in the oars and 
called his pet to him. Picking him up he 
held Rusty over the side of the boat where 
Rusty found to his surprise that he was 
making his legs paddle as if he were 
already in the water. 

That’s the way to swim, Rusty, old 
boy,” laughed Mr. Abbott. Instinct 
tells you how to make your legs go. At 
any rate, you have the idea all right, so 
I’ll just drop you in and follow right after 
you.” 

With that he put Rusty in the water. 
Away he swam, snapping at the bubbles 
he saw ahead of him. He was much sur- 
prised^a moment later at a big splash that 
made big waves. Shaking the water out 
of his eyes he looked at the boat. Fright- 


ITO RUSTY 

ened because he could not see his master, 
he barked, which seemed to bring his mas¬ 
ter’s head out of the water immediately 
in front of him. Mr. Abbott was blowing 
and shaking the water from his head and 
face just as Rusty had done. This was 
surely something new. 

Mr. Abbott turned to swim around the 
boat while Rusty paddled after him as 
fast as he could. His master called to him 
to hurry, but Rusty was working his legs 
as fast as he possibly could, while he 
barked continuously at the fun he was 
having. 

When Mr. Abbott had swam as long as 
he cared to, he drew himself into the boat 
while Rusty paddled around wondering if 
he was to be left out there in the water all 
alone. But a minute later he was lifted 
into the boat, where he vigorously shook 
himself. Back at the wharf. Rusty gave 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 171 

himself another vigorous shake before 
scampering to the cottage. 

His mistress met him on the piazza to 
tell him that he must lie on his blanket in 
front of the fireplace where a cozy fire 
was burning, until he was thoroughly dry. 
Rusty, of course, wasn’t expected to un¬ 
derstand that long speech, so his mistress 
snapped his leash on his collar and led 
him to his blanket in front of the fire. His 
tail told his delight, for if there was any¬ 
thing Rusty loved it was to snooze in front 
of a fire, even on a warm day. Tying his 
leash to one leg of the heavy table, Mrs. 
Abbott told him again to lie there to get 
dry, and in the afternoon he could go with 
the girls after daisies. 

Picking daisies was something Rusty 
knew nothing about, but he got as close 
to the fire as he could and stand the heat. 
Soon he was asleep, dreaming of skunks 


172 


RUSTY 


and pigs, of swimming and picking daisies. 
When Alice and Joyce came running in 
after Betty at the end of their rest hour, 
which all the girls took after lunch. Rusty 
was dry and ready for his share of the 
adventure, whatever it might be. 

The girls trooped off through the bar¬ 
way at the end of Mr. Abbott’s land. 
Rusty running ahead smelling out the 
way. Suddenly he stopped and growled. 

“ This must be where he met the skunk,” 
exclaimed Betty. “ We’d better go off 
this way, because if that skunk has his 
home around here we might run into him.” 

Turning to one side the girls hurried 
along, which delighted Rusty, as he re¬ 
membered well the trouble he had run 
into that morning. In a short time they 
came out into a big open field. Finding 
a path through it that they remembered 
from the year before, they walked along 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 173 

in Indian file, one behind the other, with 
Rusty some of the time in the path when 
he wasn’t chasing off into the tall grass 
where he was lost to view. His playmates 
could tell where he was by the waving of 
the tall grass as he dashed here and there 
in his excited running about on the scents 
of field-mice, moles, and other small life 
of the field. 

The girls knew that daisies grew by 
thousands on the far side of an old stone 
wall that once had been the dividing-line 
between two farms. They headed for a 
break in the wall, walking through it into 
a field that was almost white with the 
pretty summer flowers. The farmer would 
have been glad to have had them all 
picked, but the girls wandered here and 
there, choosing only the very largest and 
best for their bouquets. 

“ Oh, there’s a black-eyed-Susan,” cried 


174 


RUSTY 


Alice, pointing with her bouquet. “ Let’s 
try to find a bouquet of them, too. I didn’t 
remember that they blossomed so early.” 

“ I guess that there are only a few of 
them, perhaps only that one,” said Betty. 
“ You go along over there, and if you find 

4 

enough, let Joyce and me know and we’ll 
come over. You saw it first and you ought 
to have it,” she added generously. Alice 
hurried along through the tall grass, which 
was almost ready to be cut for hay. 

Betty and Joyce, each already with a 
big bouquet, were picking even more 
slowly now, selecting only very special 
flowers. As they picked, they talked about 
plans for the next day, deciding that after 
a swim in the morning they would take 
their lunches across the lake to the top 
of Sugar Hill for a picnic. 

“ I wish our mothers would go,” said 
Betty, ‘‘ but they seem to think it is nicer 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 175 


to sit on the piazza sewing or doing em¬ 
broidery, or just reading. Mother likes 
picnics, though, so perhaps I can coax her 
to go.” 

“ If you can,” replied Joyce, “ I think 
Mother would go, too. They could sit and 
talk or do embroidery while we did all the 
work. That is, all but washing the dishes 
and things. We would pack those to bring 
back for your Mandy and our Minnie to 
do. I just hope it doesn’t rain for-” 

What Joyce was about to say was inter¬ 
rupted by a cry from Alice, a sharp, 
frightened cry of pain. Both girls and 
Rusty listened a moment before Rusty’s 
keen sense of hearing caught the sounds 
of sobs and moans. With one short, sharp 
bark to say that he was coming, he dashed 
off through the grass, every few jumps 
leaping high in the air to try to see over 
the waving grass. 



176 


RUSTY 


Once he stopped and listened intently. 
He heard again the sobs and moans of 
pain near him. Once more he barked 
sharply to tell Alice that he was com¬ 
ing. 

Betty and Joyce had called several 
times to know what was the matter. 
Getting no answer that they could hear 
they were hurrying in the direction Alice 
had taken, calling to her as they tried 
to run through the grass. 

Rusty found his playmate seated on the 
ground, crying with the pain of a severely 
sprained ankle. She had stepped in a 
hole, and already the injured member was 
swelling. 

Rusty sensed at once that something 
was very wrong, just as he did when Betty 
took him to her room to cry and tell him 
what was bothering her. He tenderly 
kissed the hand Alice was holding on her 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 177 


ankle, and kissed some of the salty tears 
away from her face. 

‘‘ I knew you’d come, Rusty,” she said, 
choking back the sobs. “ Now if you were 
only big enough for me to ride on, I could 
get home, for I can’t walk. I’m afraid I 
have broken my ankle. Anyway, I’ve 
sprained it very badly. See how it is 
swollen already, and there isn’t a drop of 
cold water to put on it.” 

Rusty wanted help. He barked several 
little sharp barks to guide Betty and 
Joyce to where he had found Alice. In a 
few minutes they came, breathless with 
hurrying. 

“ Oh, Alice,” cried her sister, “ what 
has happened? ” She dropped on her 
knees and clasped Alice in her arms, very 
much frightened, for Alice did not cry 
often. 

Practical Betty laid down her huge 


178 RUSTY 

bouquet of daisies and tenderly felt of the 
swollen ankle. 

“ We can’t carry you, dear,” she said, 
“ so one of us must go for James. He can 
get the car through the bars as far as the 
stone wall, and the three of us can get you 
to the car.” 

“ I don’t want to be left alone,” said 
Alice. “ It’s getting late and I’m afraid 
because I’m so helpless.” 

“ Joyce will stay with you, and I’ll 
hurry right home,” replied Betty. “ I will 
be only a few minutes, and James will be 
less than that getting back here.” 

“ I wish we could send Rusty,” said 
Joyce. “ I don’t want to stay here alone 
with Alice.” 

“ All right. I’U stay then,” replied 
Betty, “ and you can go. I’m not afraid.” 

“ But Rusty could go so much faster,” 
objected Joyce, “ if he only knew enough 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 179 

to go back and if we had a note we could 
pin to his collar.” 

Rusty, hearing his name, barked and 
whined softly to tell them that he was 
ready to do anything to help. 

“ We haven’t any paper, or a pencil to 
write a note if we had the paper,” said 
Betty thoughtfully. “ Let me see. I 
have it! We’ll take off your stocking and 
tie it to Rusty’s collar. That will show 
them at home that he didn’t just grab the 
stocking and run away with it for fun, 
and your stocking, Alice, would show them 
that something was \vrong with you. Of 
course, he may not go home but I think I 
can make him understand, because James 
has been teaching him to go from the 
garage to Cook with something tied to his 
collar. Rusty thinks that is great fun, be¬ 
cause Cook gives him a bite of a cracker 
or a cookie as a reward.” 


180 


RUSTY 


While Betty was explaining her plan, 
Joyce was untying Alice’s shoe and care¬ 
fully taking it off. Alice herself loosened 
her stocking and held her injured leg up 
while her sister pulled the stocking off as 
carefully as she could. They saw that the 
injured ankle had begun to show black- 
and-blue, which told them that it was a 
very severe sprain. Just then Joyce re¬ 
membered a little brook at the farther side 
of the field. Taking Betty’s handkerchief 
and her own, she hurried there to wet them 
in the cold water and apply them to the 
ankle, which eased the pain a little and 
helped to prevent it from swelling more. 

While Joyce was doing that, Betty was 
tying with many knots the stocking to 
Rusty’s collar, being careful to tie up the 
ends so that he would not step on them or 
catch them on brush as he ran. The little 
dog sat very still, but he trembled with 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 181 


excitement in his eagerness to be doing 
something. 

“ Now, Rusty, dear,” said Betty when 
she had tied the stocking to her satisfac¬ 
tion, “ run home to James—James, do 
you understand? When he sees you he 
will know something has happened. 
Mother knows where we are because she 
came over here with us last year. Now 
go! And hurry. Rusty. Hurry! ” 

Betty clapped her hands and pointed 
towards the lake and the cottages, 
although they were too far away to see 
them. 

Rusty jumped around and barked, 
thinking at first that Betty was going to 
throw something for him to chase. 

“ Go home. Rusty! Go home to James,” 
she commanded, her voice trembling a 
little in her fear that her pet would not 
understand what they wanted him to do. 


182 RUSTY 

But she needn’t have feared. Sure that 
Betty was not about to throw something 
for him to bring to her, he caught her 
meaning. With one yelp to show that he 
understood, he bounded away through the 
long grass. 

“ I believe that he’s really going to do 
it,” said Alice, watching the grass move 
wildly along Rusty’s trail as she tried 
hard to blink the tears out of her eyes. 
She almost forgot her pain. 

“ I’m sure he is,” said Betty, dancing 
up and down in her excitement. “ If he 
doesn’t, when it gets late they will come 
looking for us, and we will all stay 
together.” 

James was working with a rake in front 
of the Abbott cottage. Mrs. Abbott and 
Mrs. Phillips, mother of Alice and Joyce, 
were on the piazza talking and sewing 
when they heard Rusty’s excited barking 


RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 183 

as he came running to them. He ran 
straight to James and leaped up at him. 

‘‘ Why,” exclaimed Mrs. Phillips, “ he 
has something tied to his collar! ” 

James was already bending over him 
and untying the stocking. “ It’s a stock¬ 
ing,” he said, holding it up with one hand 
while he scratched his head with the other, 
as he always did when he was puzzled. 

The two ladies hurrying down from the 
piazza saw that the stocking was one of 
Alice’s. Rusty ran from one to the other 
of them and then dashed around the cot¬ 
tage, barking anxiously. James watched 
him. 

“ He’s going to the garage,” he said. 
“ I’ll bet one of the girls has hurt her leg. 
Yes, sir. That’s it. Good dog. Rusty! 
You’re one smart pup!” He ran to¬ 
wards the garage. 

Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Phillips fol- 


184 RUSTY 

lowed, for they were frightened and 
wished to hasten to their children. James 
hastily backed the station car out of the 
shed and called to Rusty to get in with 
him. But Rusty ran towards the bars in 
the fence that would let them drive in to 
the big meadow. 

“ He’ll show us,” said James. “ That’s 
what he’s telling us—‘ Follow me,’ he says. 
All right. Rusty, old chap, we’re coming,” 
he called as he got out to help the two 
ladies into the car. 

Cook had hurried out to learn what had 
happened, and now she came back again 
with a thermos bottle of cold water and 
some pieces of old cloth. 

“ Cain’t tell, ma’am, wha’ you may 
want,” she said, handing them to her mis¬ 
tress. 

In just a few minutes more James had 
reached the stone wall and stopped the 



RUSTY’S BUSY DAY 185 


car. But Rusty had leaped the wall and 
plunged on through the grass, barking 
joyously at every leap. James honked 
the horn loudly. 

“ Here we are,” Betty and Joyce called, 
Betty waving the big hat she had been 
wearing. “ We’re ’way over here, and 
Alice has sprained her ankle.” 

“ All right,” called James. “ We’ll be 
right there.” 

He helped the two mothers out and over 
the wall and they all hurried to the girls, 
to find Rusty there clasped tight in Betty’s 
arms and trying to kiss away her tears. 

I’m only crying because I’m so glad 
that Rusty is such a good little dog,” she 
explained, looking up at her mother as 
she blinked the tears away. 

Mrs. Phillips carefully wrapped Alice’s 
injured ankle in the cloths Cook had so 
thoughtfully given them, after she had 


186 RUSTY 

wet them with the cold water from the 
thermos bottle. After Alice had had a 
drink, for she was a bit faint with the pain, 
James picked her up in his strong arms 
and carried her to the car, while the girls 
told just what had happened. 

The field was pretty rough for an auto¬ 
mobile ride, so James drove back to the 
cottage very slowly in order not to hurt 
Alice’s ankle. But Alice did not seem to 
mind the few rough spots, for she was 
hugging Rusty tight and telling him that 
he was the best dog that ever lived. 

Rusty rode with James to Mr. Brown’s 
farm, where James telephoned for a doc¬ 
tor. Rusty almost blushed while he heard 
James tell Mr. Brown what a smart fam¬ 
ily he worked for, because Betty thought 
of tying the stocking to Rusty’s collar, 
and Rusty brought the message to him, 
as plain as if it had been written out. 



CHAPTER XII 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 

When the doctor came, Betty and 
Rusty were at Mrs. Phillips’ cottage to 
learn how badly Alice had been injured. 
Of course the picnic had been given up; 
in fact, neither Betty nor Joyce had once 
thought of it since Alice had first cried 
out with pain. Dr. Parker, a big, jolly 
physician, who lived in a little town a few 

187 



188 


RUSTY 


miles distant from the camp, knew every¬ 
body and everything for miles around. 

James had told him over the telephone 
what had happened and what they thought 
was the trouble, so the doctor was not sur¬ 
prised to see Alice lying on the big com¬ 
fortable window-seat with cold cloths 
wrapped around her ankle. But he was 
surprised to see Rusty curled up tight to 
her while she plaj^ed with one of his floppy 
silky ears. 

“ I didn't know you had a dog, Alice," 
he said with surprise. “ If I had known 
that you had one to nurse you, I shouldn’t 
have hurried over here first. I would have 
gone to see old Miss French who says her 
asthma is worse and that she needs some 
of my medicine right away." 

Of course Rusty’s tail was wagging, 
slapping softly on the cushion of the win¬ 
dow-seat as he watched to see whether this 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 189 


strange man was to make him go away. 
The doctor bent over Alice and Rusty. 

Are you going to let me touch her? ” 
he asked Rusty. “ I’m not going to hurt 
her, you know, hut I’ve got to get those 
cloths off and see just what has happened 
to that ankle.” 

Alice told him who Rusty was and all 
about how he had got word to James and 
her mother of the accident. Dr. Parker 
said that any dog smart enough to do that 
without being taught was sensible enough 
to let a doctor look at a damaged ankle 
without making a fuss. He patted Rusty 
and sat down in a chair that Mrs. Phillips 
had drawn up for him while he had been 
talking. 

It’s awful sore,” said Alice, raising 
her head to see as well as she could what 
it looked like when the doctor got it uncov¬ 
ered. Betty and Joyce and her mother 


190 RUSTY 

were curious, too, for the girls had seen it 
when it first began to swell. Rusty lifted 
his head and gave Alice a quick kiss which 
made Dr. Parker chuckle. ‘ 

‘‘ That’s one great dog,” he said approv¬ 
ingly. “ He knows how to sympathize, 
and we all need a little of that when we 
are sick or hurt. He’ll be great company 
for you for the next few days—if he will 
stay with you,” he added as he lifted the 
last cloth carefully. 

‘‘ He’ll stay,” said Betty. “ As soon as 
he got back from the farm with James 
he came here instead of to our cottage, and 
he barked until Mrs. Phillips had to let 
him in. He wouldn’t even come home for 
his dinner, so I brought it over here. The 
minute he had eaten it, he got right up 
there with Alice and has been there ever 
since.” 

‘‘ I wish I had a dog like him to drive 



RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 191 

around with me,” said Dr. Parker wist¬ 
fully. “ He would be great company. 
Perhaps some day I’ll find one that I 
want, but if I do I suppose he will want 
to stay with the first sick person I call on, 
and that wouldn’t make him much com¬ 
pany for me, would it, Alice? ” 

“ Ouch,” exclaimed Alice. “ That 
hurt!” 

“ So that’s the sore spot, is it? ” said the 
doctor who, after looking very carefully at 
the injured ankle, had touched one spot. 
“ Well, Alice, I don’t think you are going 
to be laid up long. You haven’t broken 
anything. You have strained one of the 
cords, but keeping cold water on it has 
kept down the swelling so I can see just 
what damage you did to it. I’ll do it up 
tight, and you’ll have to keep off of it for 
ten days or so. I brought along a pair of 
crutches that I had at the office. I think 


192 


RUSTY 


they will fit you. Out here in the country, 
we doctors have to keep such things 
around, because we have no drug stores or 
supply houses where we can get them 
quickly. Mother or Joyce or Betty can 
help you until you learn how to handle 
them, and to-morrow after you have had 
a good night’s sleep you can get out on 
the piazza. Be careful not to touch that 
foot to the ground or the floor imtil I tell 
you you may. And be sure not to fall! ” 
Alice promised. Her mother said that 
she would see that Alice was careful, and 
Betty and Joyce both promised to be 
around whenever Alice needed help. 
When he had finished bandaging the ankle 
and had left a little medicine for Mrs. 
Phillips to give Alice when it was bedtime 
so that she would be sure to sleep, he 
said that he must hurry along because he 
had two long drives to make to see patients 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 193 

before he could start for home. While he 
was promising to come back in a week, 
he was looking at Rusty. 

“ How would you like to come for a ride 
with me? ’’ he asked as he went to the door 
and opened it. 

Rusty got up on his feet, turned around 
very slowly and snuggled down again, his 
back to the doctor. Everybody laughed, 
for it was just as if Rusty had said, 
“ What a very foolish question to ask me, 
when you can see that I am needed right 
here.’’ 

Later that afternoon. Rusty was intro¬ 
duced to something new to eat—pop-corn. 
Mrs. Phillips and Joyce and Betty got a 
long-handled corn-popper, built a small 
fire in the fireplace, and popped corn. It 
was exciting business for Rusty. When 
the kernels began to pop, he jumped from 
the window-seat, ran close to the fire and. 


194 RUSTY 

barked. With the first excitement over, 
he remembered that he had left Alice all 
alone and jumped up on the window-seat 
where he remained for the rest of the after¬ 
noon, sharing with Alice the delicious bits 
of food that came from the corn-popper. 

Rusty was in doubt what to do when 
Betty was ready to go home in the 
evening. She had remained for supper 
with Mrs. Phillips and her playmates. 
They had made a picnic meal of it from 
a card-table placed near the window-seat. 
But when bedtime came, James appeared 
to carry Alice upstairs, while Rusty puz¬ 
zled whether he ought to remain with his 
injured friend or go home with his little 
mistress. Finally he trotted home with 
Betty, because Alice told him that she 
did not need his company at night. He 
dreamed of a noise that was white and 
good to eat. 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 195 


The next day Mr. Abbott came to camp 
to spend a week. With him, he brought 
many packages which he was very careful 
to put where Rusty could not even smell 
of them. He said what was in them had 
cost a lot of money, and he wouldn’t have 
a dog that he had heard had chased a 
skunk spoil everybody’s fun on the Fourth 
of July. 

The very next day, Mr. Abbott and 
James were busy much of the time build¬ 
ing a small raft on which they fastened 
sticks that stood up like masts. They 
nailed two boards together so they looked 
like a trough for water to run in. They 
fastened this to the raft so that it pointed 
towards the sky. It was all very strange 
to Rusty, especially as neither Mr. Ab¬ 
bott nor James wanted him around. They 
kept telling him to run along and find 
Betty or Alice. He had been over with 


19« RUSTY 

Alice several times, and went back there 
again to lie at her feet for a long nap. 
Alice had managed her crutches well 
enough to get downstairs and out on the 
piazza. Lying there, Rusty could hear 
all, and yet catch forty winks. 

Late in the afternoon, Mr. Abbott and 
Rusty had a swim, in which they were 
joined by Rex, who swam out from the 
shore to join them. The big fellow wanted 
to get into the boat when they started back 
but only Rusty rode. Rex, his master 
said, was too heavy. As he rowed slowly 
back to the wharf, Rex followed, while 
Rusty, perched in the bow, listened while 
his master promised that the next day he 
would see and hear things entirely new. 
And Rusty did. 

Very early the next morning, before 
Rusty could smell anything cooking which 
would have told him that Cook was pre- 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 197 


paring breakfast, Betty crawled very 
quietly out of her bed. Dressing in a great 
hurry, she slipped quietly downstairs and 
ran outdoors. Rusty listened, but when 
he was sure that she had not gone to the 
breakfast table he sighed at having been 
disturbed and went back to sleep. A few 
minutes later he was startled by the 
strangest snapping noise he had ever 
heard. Then he heard Betty squeal and 
Joyce shout back from her cottage. He 
was certain that he was needed to help. 

With a sharp little yelp to tell them he 
was coming, he bounded from his blanket 
on Betty’s bed and dashed downstairs to 
the front door where, with the noises con¬ 
tinuing outside, he barked ‘‘ until he 
started the roof off from the house,” Mr. 
Abbott said when he hurried down to open 
the door. Before he opened it, he warned 
Rusty not to let any sparks from fire- 


198 RUSTY 

crackers bum him, and called to Betty to 
be careful that Rusty did not get hurt. 

He found Betty standing by a big flat 
rock in the front yard, with smoke and 
fire and cracking noises coming from it. 
The noise was louder than the pop-corn 
had made, and Rusty didn’t like the smell. 
He braced himself to be ready to turn and 
run as he watched the flying bits of fire¬ 
crackers as they exploded. He wasn’t 
really afraid, but he knew better than to 
go any nearer. 

Betty continued to light bunch after 
bunch of tiny firecrackers without paying 
the slightest attention to him. The noise 
made his head ache, so he trotted around 
to the kitchen door to ask Cook to let him 
in. Cook, who had just come downstairs, 
was surprised to see him up so early. She 
told him to go and play, because breakfast 
was not ready at so early an hour. 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 199 

He went to the Phillips’ cottage to find 
Alice, hut the only one around was Joyce 
who, like Betty, was exploding fire¬ 
crackers all alone, because Alice was find¬ 
ing it hard work to dress quickly and get 
downstairs on her crutches. The noise 
bothered him, so he paid no attention to 
Joyce when she told him that Alice would 
be down in a minute, and decided to go 
alone to the farm and ask Shep if he liked 
so much noise. 

Off along the familiar path he trotted, 
every step taking him farther away from 
the noise of the firecrackers. Not a single 
squirrel scolded him, even though he 
stopped at two different trees where he 
knew they had homes. Once he left the 
path to scout among the ferns and brush. 
He stopped short when, with a great roar 
and whirr, something brown went up from 
the ground to whirl off into the air among 


200 RUSTY 

the trees. That was the first time Rusty 
had seen or heard a partridge. It made 
him think that everywhere he went that 
day there was noise. 

He turned back to the path where all 
was quiet, and hurried to the big barn on 
the farm. But the barn was empty. Not 
even a cow was there. He could smell 
Shep’s tracks, but wherever they led him 
there was no sign of Shep. He went to 
the fence and the big high gate that sep¬ 
arated the barnyard from the house. It 
was too high for him to jump. He 
couldn’t crawl under it, but he ran the 
entire length of the fence before he gave 
that idea up. 

Starting home, he remembered the pig¬ 
pen and the little pig that had escaped. 
He ran over there. Sure enough, mother 
pig and all her babies were inside the pen, 
but he didn’t consider that as any reason 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 201 


why he should not bark at them. Shep 
would come to see what was the matter 
and he could have his visit with him. 

Going close to the pen he barked furi¬ 
ously. The little pigs squealed in fright 
as they ran around in the pen. Their 
mother grunted and stirred uneasily, but 
when she saw no real danger she was too 
lazy to get up. After a minute Rusty 
stopped barking to look towards the gate. 
Perhaps Shep hadn’t heard him! Again 
he started his savage barking, and as he 
stopped for breath he saw Shep sail 
through the air over the gate and race 
towards the pen. 

Rusty ran to meet him and Shep 
stopped to ask what was the matter. 

‘‘ Not a thing,” said Rusty. ‘‘ I wanted 
to see you for a little visit and as I couldn’t 
find you or get over or under the gate I 
came down here to bark just as I did that 


202 


RUSTY 


morning when the little pig got out. Now 
you have come I want to ask you if-” 

‘‘ I suppose you think that was very 
smart,” Shep interrupted, turning away 
from his little friend. “ But I tell you it 
wasn’t. I was helping round up some 
sheep when we heard you calling as if 
there was something wrong. I have 
wasted my time to run ’way over here. 

“You should learn that there are dif¬ 
ferent ways of barking. You can bark as 
you were barking now—excited and in¬ 
sistent. That gives warning that some¬ 
thing is wrong. Or you can bark to ask 
some one to open a door for you. Or you 
can bark for the sheer joy of barking, just 
as children shout at their play. There’s a 
difference in barks that people as well as 
dogs know. Don’t bark false alarms, or 
people will not like you. I can’t stop to 
talk with you now. I’ve got work to do.” 



RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 203 


With that Shep ran to the gate, clearing 
the top in one bound as he hurried on his 
way back to the sheep he was helping his 
master to round up. Rusty didn’t have 
time to say that he was sorry. He stood 
for a minute; then, head and tail down, 
started back for camp and all the noise 
there. 

For a long time before he got in sight 
of the camp he could hear Betty calling 
him, but he was so hurt that he did not 
hurry. When his little mistress saw him 
looking so forlorn she thought he had been 
after another skunk and ran into the 
house, shutting the door tight behind her. 
Seeing that even Betty did not want him. 
Rusty turned towards the Phillips’ cot¬ 
tage to find Alice. She was seated in a 
big chair on the piazza and Rusty leaped 
into her lap, where Betty found him some 
time later. 


204 RUSTY 

She could not understand what was the 
matter with her pet, but she did under¬ 
stand that she had wronged him. Getting 
down on her knees his little mistress put 
her arms around him, kissed him as she 
told him that she ought to have known 
better than to think him guilty of again 
chasing a skunk. She told him how sorry 
she was that she had shut him out of his 
home. 

Rusty’s tail wagged a tiny bit to show 
her that he was slowly forgiving her and 
that in a few minutes he would be all right 
again. But he couldn’t tell her what he 
had learned from Shep that morning or 
how heartbroken he was over the mistake 
he had made in the way he had called 
Shep. He was so forlorn and hurt that 
it was an hour before he would go home 
with Betty to eat breakfast. Because the 
girls were still making lots of noise with 


RUSTY PLAYS NURSE 205 

their firecrackers, he stayed in the kitchen 
with Cook, who told him that she didn’t 
like the noise any better than he did. 

That evening he sat on the piazza with 
Betty, her mother, Mrs. Phillips, Alice 
and Joyce while Mr. Abbott and James 
took one of the boats and towed the raft 
they had made out into the lake. There 
where every one in camp could have a 
plain view the men shot off sky-rockets 
from the trough-like thing they had made, 
pin-wheels, that were fastened to the masts 
of the raft, Roman candles, flower-pots, 
and bombs, only Rusty didn’t know what 
they were called. Being so far away, they 
didn’t make the noise that hurt Rusty’s 
head, so he enjoyed sitting there watching 
the long trails of sparks. He barked at 
the fun, but, remembering Shep, he was 
careful to show that it was just pleasure. 



CHAPTER XIII 

RUSTY GOES FISHING 

The days fairly flew along, even for 
Alice, for Rusty was devoted to her, and 
Betty and Joyce helped her to get to the 
boat in which they all passed many happy 
hours which otherwise would have ticked 
away very slowly for the injured girl. 
So fast did time fly that Dr. Parker came 
rattling into the camp in his old car before 


206 


















RUSTY GOES FISHING 207 

any one remembered that a whole week 
had gone since Alice had sprained her 
ankle. 

Alice he found seated on the piazza. 
She had been reading, but when she first 
heard the rattling that told her the doctor 
was on his way she was idly watching 
Betty and Joyce drifting in the boat not 
far from shore, with Rusty perched in the 
bow, on the lookout for danger. They, 
too, heard the car, and the girls began 
rowing as fast as they could for the wharf 
to welcome the doctor and to learn how 
much longer Alice must use crutches and 
keep the ankle in a tight bandage. 

Rusty was in a very special hurry. He 
barked at the girls and raced from one end 
of the boat to the other in his efforts to 
hasten the progress to shore. Dr. Parker 
waved to the girls and told them not to 
hurry in the heat. He was listening to 


208 


RUSTY 


hear Mrs. Phillips report what a good 
patient Alice had been, when Rusty raced 
up the steps and with one leap landed in 
Alice’s lap. In another second he had 
flopped down with a sigh, his tail wagging 
furiously as he watched the doctor. 

“You are a fraud,” said the doctor with 
a laugh, shaking a finger at Rusty. 

“ Here I left you to nurse and watch over 

> 

Alice while I was away. I come back 
when you didn’t expect me and I find you 
out on the lake with two girls who are in 
good health and do not need watching. 
I’m all through with you as a nurse, and 
I’m never going to invite you again.” 

Now Rusty, like any little dog, was sen¬ 
sitive to praise or blame. When he was 
not quite sure whether a person was really 
serious, he would remain quiet and study 
him, eager to catch the first certain sign 
of his meaning. 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 209 


When he rushed from the boat to Alice, 
he did only what he had done whenever 
he got back from his meals at his own 
cottage, or from a tramp with James to 
the farm, or from a ride on the lake with 
Betty and Joyce. After all, he was not 
Alice’s dog, but Betty’s. He could not 
be expected to desert his own little mis¬ 
tress for her playmate all the time, even 
though Alice was crippled and could not 
always go with them until her ankle was 
well again. 

The doctor he knew only as a man who 
had come to see them and who had a nice 
smile, a great deep voice, and who, Rusty 
could tell, liked little dogs. Rusty wanted 
to be friends, but not if being a friend 
meant any change in his plans for dividing 
his time. 

So he watched the doctor very closely 
for the first sign that would make him 


210 RUSTY 

sure that he didn’t mean anything by shak¬ 
ing his finger. But the doctor had a long 
story to tell about a patient of his that 
tired Rusty, who settled down to catch 
forty winks. Only when the doctor arose 
and drew a chair up beside Alice to un¬ 
wrap the bandage did Rusty rouse. He 
was instantly all attention. In his interest 
to see just what was under the bandage, 
he moved aromid so much that Betty 
picked him up and held him in order that 
the doctor might work without the dog 
bothering him. 

“ I know you are just as anxious as I 
am, or as Alice or any of the rest,” said 
Dr. Parker, “ but you know your part is 
to keep Alice company and not to help 
with operations or dressings. This has got 
along so wonderfully well that in a day or 
two you will be obliged to find some other 
place to lie than Alice’s lap. She is 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 211 


going to be up and around, although she 
has got to be very careful and not again 
turn this ankle or step in any holes the 
way she did the other time.” 

While he pretended to be talking only 
to Rusty, every one else heard and 
watched him closely as he made his exam¬ 
ination. He again bandaged the ankle and 
told Alice that she could begin putting it 
on the floor while she walked with her 
crutches, but that she must not bear much 
weight on it for a few days. 

Rusty sensed the good news and, 
squirming out of Betty’s arms, ran down 
the steps where he turned around and 
barked furiously as if challenging Alice to 
get right up and have a romp with him. 
Mrs. Phillips arranged to have the 
crutches taken back to Dr. Parker’s office, 
and when the doctor left a few minutes 
later Rusty raced ahead of him to his auto- 


212 RUSTY 

mobile, the door of which was open, leaped 
up on the seat and was ready to go for a 
ride even if he had not been invited. 

“ So you’ve decided to ride with me to¬ 
day, have you? ” asked the friendly doctor 
as he climbed into his car. “ You think 
because I have dropped the case that you, 
the nurse, can quit, too, do you? You 
better ask Betty if you can go with me. 
Or, better yet, we will take Betty along 
with us as far as the farm and you can 
walk back with her.” 

Betty and Joyce answered the doctor’s 
call, and decided that they would both ride 
to the farm. Calling to Mrs. Phillips that 
they would be back in a few minutes, they 
squeezed into the seat with their friend, 
Betty holding Rusty. 

Dr. Parker was backing the car around 
when another automobile came into sight 
around the bend. Rusty barked a wel- 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 218 

come, the girls waved and called and the 
doctor stopped his car. 

Mr. Abbott had driven up from the city 
for the week-end, bringing his yoimger 
brother who had been away visiting friends 
since the close of the military school where 
he was studying. What a noisy welcome 
they did have! Alice came hobbling on 
her crutches, with her mother holding one 
arm to steady her on the rough walking, 
while from the Abbott cottage Mrs. Ab¬ 
bott hurried and had almost as big a hug 
and kiss for Frank Abbott as she did for 
her husband. 

Everybody talked at once. Mr. Abbott 
and Frank sympathized with Alice, and 
Frank heard the story of Rusty’s help 
from every one, until Rusty by jumping 
and barking received some attention from 
Mr. Abbott. He explained to Frank that 
Rusty was really his dog, but that his wife 


214 


RUSTY 


and daughter had taken him away with 
them and wouldn’t let him have him for 
even a few minutes. 

“ Well, I’m going to have him,” an¬ 
nounced Frank. “ I’m going to fish every 
minute I can while I’m up here, and he’s 
going with me. Aren’t you. Rusty? ” he 
asked, bending down and holding out his 
arms. Rusty leaped into them, sure that 
he would be caught! 

“ I never saw him do that before,” ex¬ 
claimed Betty and her mother at the same 
time. 

“ That shows what a clever teacher I 
am,” laughed Frank. “A dog learns from 
me so quickly and easily that he doesn’t 
know he’s had a lesson.” 

He put Rusty down. After he had run 
around in his excitement for a pat from 
every one Frank held his arms again and 
once more Rusty leaped into them while 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 215 

everybody applauded. After Dr. Parker 
had declared that Betty’s dog could learn 
to do anything, and said that he wished 
he could stay and go fishing with Frank, 
he drove away. Everybody else piled into 
the Abbott car to ride the few hundred 
feet to their cottage. 

From the shade of the shed which was 
used as the garage Rex came to greet his 
master. Frank roughed him a little, at 
the same time telling him that when the 
snow came they would have a real rough- 
and-tumble in the drifts. Lifting his suit¬ 
case and fishing-tackle from the car, 
Frank disappeared in the cottage to 
change to fishing clothes. He declared 
that he was not intending to waste any 
time. 

Rusty dashed in with him. A minute 
later, out he came again to be certain that 
his master was not leaving him behind. 


216 RUSTY 

When he heard the front door slam and 
saw Frank headed for the wharf he dashed 
after him bent on a ride in the boat and 
his first adventure at fishing. Once they 
were clear of the wharf and headed up the 
lake where Frank said was the best fishing, 
Rusty took his place in the bow. His front 
feet were on the very outside edge as they 
always were when the boat was moving. 
He was like a figurehead on the old ships 
that once sailed the seas. 

‘‘ You see, Rusty,” said Frank, “ it’s 
getting along towards sunset which means 
the pickerel will begin to bite. We’ll get 
enough for supper if I have any luck. 
And I’ll have it, if you do not make too 
much noise. You understand, don’t you, 
that you are not to be yelping around 
while I am fishing? ” 

All this was said while Frank was row¬ 
ing with his back to Rusty. The dog paid 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 217 


no attention. Fishing was something he 
knew nothing about. None of the girls 
cared for it, and what little time Mr. 
Abbott could be at camp he enjoyed on 
the piazza or pitching horseshoes, except 
for his one swim each day. Rusty always 
went in with him, and whenever the girls 
went bathing. Rusty went, too. 

Having rowed well up the lake, Frank 
turned in towards some stumps and lily- 
pads, where he stopped rowing and let the 
boat drift while he fussed with his rod and 
line. With the rapid progress of the boat 
checked. Rusty lost interest in what was 
ahead of them and turned to watch what 
Frank was doing. 

He saw him make several short pieces 
of his rod grow into one long one and won¬ 
dered what he was going to do with the 
long string fastened to it. He watched 
Frank whirl the string in the air to throw 


218 RUSTY 

it out over the water, then stood with his 
feet on the gunwale of the boat undecided 
whether to jump after it. 

Only the slightest splash did he see but 
he watched closely the little ripples on the 
surface as Frank jerked the line along. 
Up in the bow Rusty went once more, the 
better to see all that was going on. Frank 
pulled the line out of the water only to 
toss it far out again, then repeat the act 
again and again, jerking it along each 
time. Rusty thought that a very foolish 
way of spending an afternoon. Failing to 
see anything of interest to dogs in that 
he was about to curl down for a nap when 
Frank suddenly gave a quick jerk and the 
line began to act differently. 

Something long, bright, and shiny, 
twisting and squirming as it flirted spark¬ 
ling water drops in a wide circle on the 
lake, came into sight on the end of the line. 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 219 


That was worth seeing, so Rusty barked 
his pleasure. 

Frank dropped the fish in the bottom of 
the boat, bending over it while he removed 
the hook from its mouth. When he 
straightened up, he told Rusty that he 
was welcome to see what he thought of a 
nice, big pickerel fresh from the water. 
Rusty jumped down watching the flop¬ 
ping fish closely, as he advanced slowly 
towards it. When it remained quiet a 
moment. Rusty tried to smell of it, only 
to be slapped with its tail on his nose. 
He jumped back and sneezed. He didn’t 
like water in his nose. 

Barking in surprise he jumped at it, 
but the flopping of the fish in the water 
in the bottom of the boat sprayed Rusty. 
He backed off, shook himself and looked 
up to find Frank laughing at him. 

“ That was a new one, wasn’t it. 


220 


RUSTY 


Rusty? ” said Frank. “You hadn’t been 
introduced to a live fish before, had you? 
Well, you get up on your perch again and 
I’ll show you some more.” 

So Rusty climbed up in the bow again 
to watch every move of this friend of his, 
who every now and then pulled in another 
fish, for Frank was a good fisherman. 
Rusty barked his applause as each new 
catch flopped around in the bottom of the 
boat, but he did not again get down to 
smell of them. 

Frank was just about ready to stop for 
the afternoon, because he was getting hun¬ 
gry and he could smell something cooking, 
when he caught another. Before he could 
swing it over the boat it flopped off into 
the water. Rusty knew that Frank 
wanted that fish, so overboard he went. 

To his surprise, after he got in the 
water he could not see it. He swam in a 


RUSTY GOES FISHING 221 

circle, whining in his eagerness to catch it 
for his master’s brother. Frank told him 
that it was nice of him to try to save it 
for him, but he was afraid it would take so 
long that he could not wait. 

As Frank rowed back to the wharf. 
Rusty paddled along behind the boat, 
climbed out on the bank, gave a couple of 
shakes and ran out on the wharf where 
Frank was placing his catch. His fish on 
the wharf, Frank stopped to unjoint his 
pole. Rusty saw that only one of them 
flopped even feebly and he crept slowly 
closer, and smelled of the one nearest him. 
When it made no move, he grabbed it and 
ran for the cottage. 

Cook was seated at the back door pre¬ 
paring a sauce, when Rusty appeared and 
laid the pickerel at her feet. 

“ Where you get dat fish? ” asked Cook, 
her eyes opening wide in surprise. “ You 


222 


RUSTY 


ben fishin’ wid Betty’s uncle and catch 
’im yo’sef ? ” she asked. Putting down her 
spoon and bowl she picked up the fish and 
found there was not a single tooth-mark 
on it, so carefully had the dog carried it 
in his mouth. 

“ Here, Cook,” said Frank, coming 
around the corner of the cottage just then 
with the rest of his catch, “ here’s some 
fish for supper. Why, where did you get 
that?” he exclaimed, pointing to the one 
Cook was holding. “ I thought I had one 
more, but I couldn’t find it! ” 

Cook explained, and Frank reached 
down and pulled one of Rusty’s ears. He 
told him that he was a good boy and 
showed that he knew where to take things 
to be cooked. Later, Rusty heard Frank 
telling his master that his spaniel was the 
smartest dog he ever had seen. 



CHAPTER XIV 

RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 

With Frank in camp and Alice able in 
a few days to join Betty and Joyce, the 
remainder of Rusty’s summer was one of 
delightful haste to enjoy the many things 
he found to do. Frank taught him to 
carry anything given him without damag¬ 
ing it. He trained him with great patience 
not to drop it for any reason, no matter 

223 


















224 RUSTY 

what the temptation. He found it hard 
coming back from the farm not to stop to 
tell one of the squirrels what he thought 
about their saucy chatter whenever he 
came along the path. But in time Rusty- 
learned that anything he was told to 
“ carry ” was not to be dropped, or even 
carefully laid down without permission. 

It was very different with a tennis-ball 
that went outside of the white lines that 
marked the court. Those he was expected 
to find and carry back without being told. 
When the girls were very careless in their 
play, allowing many, many balls to go 
outside, he sometimes got tired enough to 
go for a swim with Frank or, in the late 
afternoon, for a short fishing trip. He no 
longer barked every time a fish was 
caught, nor did he jump overboard when 
one occasionally wriggled free from the 
hook. But he enjoyed every minute. 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 225 


The day came at last when Rusty knew 
that something much out of the ordinary 
was going on. Betty and her friends were 
depressed and unhappy. Every one else 
had more things to do than ever before. 
They did things they never had done all 
the long summer. Mr. Abbott had re¬ 
turned to camp and, instead of sitting on 
the piazza with Rusty’s mistress, or pitch¬ 
ing horseshoes, he was the busiest of all. 

Nobody wanted Rusty about. They 
stumbled over him, stepped on him, and 
grew impatient because he tried to see and 
smell what was being done. He got in 
their way, no matter where he went. Nat¬ 
urally he gave a delighted yelp when 
Frank called to him to “ come and do 
some work.” 

Down near the wharf he found Mr. Ab¬ 
bott, Frank, and James at the big flat- 
bottomed boat that Frank had used for 


226 


RUSTY 


fishing and swimming. It was out of the 
water, perched on rollers. A long rope 
was hitched to the bow and stretched out 
on the ground. 

“ Catch hold of that rope and pull. 
Rusty,” ordered Frank. “ Pull for all 
you’re worth, or we’ll never get this boat 
put away.” 

If there was anything Rusty delighted 
to do, it was to pull and tug on something. 
He pounced on the rope, shifted it in his 
mouth until he got a satisfactory hold, dug 
in his toes, growled, shook his head and 
tugged and pulled while the men shouted 
at him and at each other. The boat moved 
forward a little and Rusty, satisfied that 
he had made it move, pulled still harder 
and growled more fiercely. It was the 
best tug he had ever had. 

The next thing he knew, he was away 
under the piazza with the boat taking up 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 227 


almost every inch of the space. Frank 
was calling to him to come out, for there 
was another boat that must be put up for 
the winter. Because he knew every inch 
of space under the piazza, Rusty managed 
to squeeze out and help with the other 
boat. 

Getting in the boats was only one of 
the hundred and one things that had to be 
done that day. Cook alone did not hurry, 
for Cook was one of those fortunate peo¬ 
ple who always manage to get their work 
done without getting excited about it. 
Rusty made many trips to the shore and 
to his dish of water in the kitchen, for he 
found it thirsty work helping to close 
camp for the winter. 

Rex didn’t let the fuss disturb him in 
the least. He stretched out on the pine 
needles close to the station car where he 
could keep an eye on it and let the rest 


228 


RUSTY 


do the work. Betty, like Rex, didn’t do 
very much. She sat a long time on the end 
of the wharf looking out over the water 
and saying nothing. Rusty got some rest 
as he sat beside her with her arm around 
him. 

“ You see. Rusty,” she said, “ we’ve got 
to go home this afternoon, because it’s 
getting late in the season and school opens 
next week. Why, I must go to school 
and leave all this water and woods and 
flowers and sweet smells, the pet chip¬ 
munk and the birds and squirrels and 
everything lovely, I can’t understand, can 
you? ” 

“ Yip,” said Rusty. 

“ I don’t believe you. You say what 
sounds like ‘ yes,’ and you know you don’t 
know why we must leave this glorious 
camp any more than I do. I really want 
to cry, Rusty, but I’m not going to. It 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 229 


won’t do any good, and, anyway, it’s be¬ 
ginning to get cold nights. Pretty soon 
snow will be here, and then it will not be 
so nice and comfy, even with that big fire¬ 
place. You’ll have a nice long ride in the 
automobile, and you’ll like that just as I 
will, only I wish we were coming back at 
the end of it, don’t you? ” 

“ Yip,” said Rusty again. 

“ Of course you do. Yes, Mother, I’m 
coming,” she called in reply to her mother, 
who wanted her to come and eat lunch, so 
they could finish the work of closing the 
cottage, the upper windows of which had 
already been closed in for winter with 
great wooden blinds that James had put 
on. 

“ I never saw a dog get so excited over 
anything as that Rusty does,” said Mr. 
Abbott, as Rusty jumped up on Betty’s 
chair and waited for a bite of something 


230 RUSTY 

or other. What it would be, made no dif¬ 
ference to him. He had even eaten a mor¬ 
sel of beet one day before he knew what it 
was Betty had offered him. Rusty was a 
trifle ashamed of that, but he never let 
them know it. 

“ He has worked harder than all of the 
rest of us put together,’’ continued his 
master. “ I don’t know how Frank and I 
would have got that boat up even with 
James’ help if it hadn’t been for the 
tugging that dog did. He ought to be 
completely tuckered out, and sleep all the 
way home.” 

Rusty looked at his master and then at 
Frank. Frank laughed. “ He doesn’t 
want to ride. He wants to run beside 
me on my bicycle,” he said. Rusty’s tail 
wagged furiously. 

“You are not going to ride all the way 
home on that wheel,” exclaimed Mrs. 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 281 

Abbott. “ Put your wheel in the station 
car and ride with us. We’ll find room for 
you.” 

“ I’m going to ride part of the way on 
the wheel,” replied Frank. “ It’s cool 
through the woods, and I need the exer¬ 
cise. I’ll start ahead of you, and when 
you overtake me. I’ll climb on with 
James.” 

Rusty knew that the talk concerned him 
and he watched Frank closely, always 
remembering to keep one eye on Betty’s 
hand. He hadn’t the slightest intention of 
deserting his little mistress for long, but 
he did love to play with Frank. And 
Betty, to tell the truth, was perfectly will¬ 
ing that her uncle should share some of 
Rusty’s play time. 

“ You see,” she told her mother once, 
“ dogs like boys and men, and I think it 
is a good plan for Rusty to play with 


232 RUSTY 

Uncle Frank some instead of being with 
us girls and you all the time.” 

Her mother had agreed with her, and 
now at the table she said that she supposed 
Rusty would like the run with a man, for 
Betty’s father got very little time to give 
to Rusty. She was smiling when she said 
that, and Betty’s father looked up quickly. 

What’s that? ” he asked. I seem to 
have little time for Rusty, you say? 
Whenever I try to take him with me for 
a few hours, either you or Betty say you 
cannot spare him. When I get home at 
night, he eats his dinner and, if Betty is 
going out to play, so is Rusty. If not, he 
sticks close to her so that he won’t miss 
a chance to go to bed with the first one 
upstairs. Pretty chance I have to play 
with him! ” 

‘‘ Poor Daddy,” said Betty, putting her 
arm around Rusty and giving him a bite 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 233 

of bread. ‘‘ When we get home he shall 
have Rusty every minute of the time that 
Mother or I do not need him—or Frank, 
while he is there.” 

Her father groaned and Betty smiled, 
for she knew he was only joking and that 
he was only too glad to have Rusty with 
them all the time. 

It was a hastv meal, for much was left 
to be done before the start home could be 
made. Rusty hurried to the kitchen to 
have his last meal in camp. He was anx¬ 
ious to be ready when Frank was, for it 
was not every day that he had a chance 
for a nice run through the cool woods. 

It was an hour or more after lunch be¬ 
fore Betty was joined by Alice and Joyce. 
The girls were so mournful about leaving 
that Rusty had hard work to cheer them 
up. While he was on the wharf with 
them, he heard Frank shouting his good- 


284 RUSTY 

byes and promises to ride in the car when 
it caught up with him. 

Frank did not call him, and Rusty hesi¬ 
tated about going. But as Frank was 
disappearing around the bend in the road 
Betty told him to go along if he wanted 
to, for they would soon overtake him and 
he could have his run and his ride as well. 
With that Rusty dashed off, and it was 
a good thing for Frank that he did. Even 
his master said so, later in the day. 

They raced along side by side until they 
came to the first long hill in the woods. 
There Frank got off and walked, pushing 
his bicycle. He told Rusty that it was 
easier to walk up a hill than to push a 
bicycle up while riding it. He was in no 
hurry, because the rest of the family would 
not start for an hour and all Frank wanted 
was to ride on the first part of the journey 
which was through the cool woods. 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 235 

Rusty found that he had plenty of time 
to look into several holes^ even to stop and 
dig a little at two of them just to warn 
whatever might be at home that if he cared 
to waste time on them they would not be 
safe. When they got to the top of the 
hill after Frank had taken a long rest part 
way up, Frank mounted his bicycle and 
rode along. Just then a red squirrel 
scurried across the road and into a stone 
wall. Rusty turned aside to see just 
which hole he had gone into and how big 
it was. He spent some time trying to find 
him and would have stayed there longer 
had he not heard Frank call. 

“Hi, Rusty. Hi, Rusty. Quick I 
Help!’’ 

Rusty cocked his ears and listened. 
Something in the tone of voice made him 
understand that this was no time to be 
fooling around with a little red squirrel. 


236 


RUSTY 


Laying back his big ears so that they 
wouldn’t flap in his eyes he started along 
that road faster than he ever had run in 
his whole life. 

Frank had got farther away from him 
than he supposed, but at last he turned a 
comer and there was Frank struggling 
with a big man. Both had their hands on 
the bicycle and were pulling this way and 
that. Rusty saw the man strike Frank 
and knock him down. Without a sound 
of warning, Rusty launched his little body 
through the air and for the first time in 
his life fastened his teeth in anger. He 
caught hold of the calf of the man’s right 
leg and held on. 

The man let go of the bicycle as he tried 
to strike Rusty. But Rusty turned and 
twisted, keeping behind the man but 
always hanging on. In trying to turn 
around quickly the man tripped and fell. 


RUSTY TO THE RESCUE 237 


Still Rusty hung on, dodging the kicks 
aimed at him by the other foot. The 
little dog was very tired but Frank was 
slowly getting to his feet and urging him 
to hold on, as he heard the sound of an 
automobile horn that he knew, no matter 
where he heard it. 

Then came the sound of his master’s 
voice shouting encouragement. As Frank 
struggled to his feet. Rusty received a 
hard kick on the head. Frank’s assailant 
had managed to get to his feet and headed 
for the woods. Rusty still hanging on. He 
let go only at the insistent calls of his 
master and both mistresses, wearily turn¬ 
ing towards them to be picked up by his 
master and handed to Betty, who cried 
over him. 

Rusty kissed the tears away to tell her 
that he was not badly hurt. After Frank 
and his master had patted him, telling him 


288 RUSTY 

that he looked like a spaniel but hung on 
like a bulldog, James looked him over and 
announced that he had not been badly 
hurt. With the bicycle added to the load 
on the station car, Frank climbed in with 
the family and Rusty slept the rest of the 
long way home, where he was to pass the 
long fall and winter, with many more ad¬ 
ventures ahead of him. 



CHAPTER XV 

EUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 

Although Betty hail been unhappy 

about leaving camp, when they arrived 

home again that afternoon she was as 

delighted to be there as she had been to 

reach the camp long weeks before. And 

Rusty was just as delighted. To show it, 

he leaped from the car, ran up the front 

steps, ran back to the car, then to the back 

289 


































240 RUSTY 

door and once more back to the car, bark¬ 
ing at every jump. 

“ Now, Betty,” said Mr. Abbott, “ you 
take that black bundle of nerves and chain¬ 
lightning and tie him to a tree somewhere, 
or we shall all break our legs falling over 
him. It isn’t safe to step anywhere with 
that dog running around. We have so 
many things to carry into the house that 
we can’t always see him, and if we do, we 
can’t dodge him.” 

“ I’ll run over to see Jennie and 
Pauline, and he’ll go with me,” said Betty. 
“ That will get him out of the way. I 
want to tell them all the wonderful things 
he has done this summer, and what good 
times we have had.” 

Her mother agreed that it would be a 
good plan, so Betty called Rusty and ran 
down the street. Rusty ahead barking 
from joy, as he always did unless Betty 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 241 

told him to “ heel.” She made him follow 
only when she was walking on an errand, 
for Betty usually hopped and skipped on 
the street when she was on her way to one 
of her playmates. 

They turned the corner and caught 
sight of Jennie in the front yard of her 
home. Betty “ coo-ed,” Rusty barked 
and raced ahead to leap up on Jennie with 
little cries of joy at seeing her again. 
Pauline came hurrying out of the house, 
and the girls hugged and kissed each other 
as they all talked at the top of their voices 
at the same time. 

While Rusty was greeting the girls and 
being welcomed by them, who should come 
around the corner but Mittens! She had 
crept along, silently, to learn what all the 
noise was about, and to see what dog was 
around where her children were. 

Rusty ran towards her with a little yelp 


242 


RUSTY 


of pleasure. Mittens crouched down, laid 
back her ears, and allowed Rusty to kiss 
her, not only once, but several times. 

Betty gathered Mittens in her arms and 
was rubbing her the way all cats like to 
be rubbed, when around the corner came 
Mittens’ children. They were now so 
much grown and so changed were their 
looks that Rusty did not know them as 
the tiny things he had tried to help their 
mother care for. At sight of Rusty each 
one of them humped its back, every hair 
stood on end, and they spit in chorus when 
Rusty started towards them. While he 
would chase a full-grown cat, if the cat 
would run, he had no intention of bother¬ 
ing babies. 

But Mittens wasn’t sure. Leaping 
from Betty’s arms she went to the protec¬ 
tion of her family. The girls were a long 
time trying to make Rusty understand 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 248 

that they were Mittens’ kittens, the same 
ones he had washed and tried to carry as 
their mother did. Rusty was willing 
enough to be friends, but the kittens were 
slow to be convinced that he wouldn’t hurt 
them, although they saw that their mother 
was not afraid of him. 

Betty had so many things to tell her 
friends that it was almost supper time 
when she started home. Ahead of her ran 
Rusty. Behind her, tail straight in the 
air, walked Mittens. Behind their mother, 
tails straight up like hers, followed her 
kittens in single file. 

It was a long walk for the kittens, so 
Betty walked slowly, turning around 
every few steps to be sure they were fol¬ 
lowing her. When Betty’s father caught 
sight of the procession, he called Mrs. Ab¬ 
bott to see the return of the family’s en¬ 
tire collection of pets. He said that all 


244 


RUSTY 


they lacked was the pet chipmunk from 
camp to have the list complete, unless they 
included Rusty’s skunk. When he men¬ 
tioned that animal, he looked at Rusty 
with one hand to his nose. Rusty moved 
away, head and tail drooped. He knew 
what was meant, and did not like to be re¬ 
minded of that morning. 

When Mr. Abbott dropped his hand 
and smiled, Rusty, knowing he was for¬ 
given, returned to the group. Betty led 
the procession around to the kitchen door 
where all were welcomed by Cook and 
Sarah. The kittens had been too young 
to remember the house in which they had 
been born, and of course did not remem¬ 
ber Cook or the maid. At first they spent 
much of their time under the stove, but 
INIittens remembered her home and made 
herself comfortable. 

Rusty, too, found the kitchen familiar. 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 245 

going at once to his dish under the sink, 
where Mittens followed him to get her 
first drink of milk in her own home in a 
long time. 

The next day Betty confided to Rusty 
that in two more days she must return to 
school. “You will miss me almost every 
morning and every afternoon,” she told 
him. “ We cannot be together almost all 
of the time as we have been all summer. 
Uncle Frank will be gone, too, so I know 
you will be lonesome, but we just can’t 
help it.” 

She hugged and kissed him until Rusty 
knew that something was bothering his 
little mistress. But try as he would, he 
could not understand what it could be. 
However, when the day came that Betty 
would not let him out with her. Rusty re¬ 
membered that Betty used to leave him 
like that. He hopped on a chair by the 


246 RUSTY 

front window to watch her as far as he 
could see her. He moped around the 
house all morning, following Mrs. Abbott 
wherever she went. She knew what was 
the matter and told him that she was lonely 
for Betty also. Once Rusty said “ Woof ” 
softly at the kitchen door and Cook 
opened it. She told him that it was a 
shame that a nice dog like him could not 
go to school and be with his little mistress 
all of the time. Rusty could not quite 
understand, but he felt comforted. 

Just as if Cook’s words had carried 

I 

through the air all the way to Betty’s 
school, the idea came to Miss Judson, 
Betty’s teacher. Each boy and girl had 
told that first morning what they had done 
during the long summer vacation. Betty, 
of course, had told all about how clever 
and brave Rusty had been. Jennie and 
Pauline had heard the story, but none of 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 247 

the others, including Miss Judson, knew 
anything about it. 

Miss Judson, who had come from the 
country to teach in the small city where 
the Abbotts and their friends lived, had 
always had a dog. Where her home had 
been, many of the children had dogs that 
followed them to school, and some that 
were allowed in the schoolrooms. After 
Betty had told her story. Miss Judson 
thought a minute before she asked the 
children if they would not like to see the 
little dog they had heard so much about. 
Miss Judson smiled at the shout that went 
up from every boy and girl, and asked 
Betty if she would not like to bring Rusty 
that afternoon for the children to see. 

Betty, of course, was delighted, but she 
thought perhaps her father and mother 
would think it was not right. To make 
certain there would be no mistake Miss 


248 RUSTY 

Judson wrote a note to Mrs. Abbott which 
Betty hurried home with at noon. Her 
mother was afraid that Rusty would not 
follow closely and might get run over, but 
Mr. Abbott said Rusty minded well, and 
if Betty told him to ‘‘ heel ’’ when she left 
the house he would stay right behind her 
all the way to school. It wasn’t very far, 
and it was on a quiet street with no 
dangerous crossings. That settled it, and 
after lunch Rusty found himself trotting 
close at Betty’s heels on his first visit to 
school. 

As Betty went along she was joined by 
Jennie and Pauline. A minute later, 
Jimmy Watts and Freddie Hanson 
caught up with them, each of them giving 
Rusty an admiring pat. Before they 
reached the school, Betty was in the com¬ 
pany of a dozen or more of her school¬ 
mates, all talking at once about Rusty or 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 249 


other dogs of which they had heard or 
read. They all agreed that Rusty’s going 
for help with the stocking tied to his collar 
showed what a smart dog he was. 

The rest of the children they found in 
the school yard, for every one of them had 
hurried through the midday meal to get 
back to school early to see Rusty. Again 
and again Betty told the story, and time 
after time she pointed out the little spot 
on his neck that gave him his name. 

Four of the boys were playing catch, 
when one of them missed the ball which 
rolled to the fence. Betty told Rusty to 
go and get it. He found it larger and 
harder than the tennis-balls he had been 
getting for the girls but he managed to 
get it between his jaws to carry to Betty. 
He would take it only to her. After that, 
Jimmy Williams purposely missed the 
ball to let Rusty bring it back. 


250 


RUSTY 


The bell rang in a few minutes. In¬ 
stead of hurrying into the schoolroom, the 
pupils all held back to allow Betty and 
Rusty to go in first. Then they crowded 
in behind them to see what Rusty would 
do when he was introduced to Miss Jud- 
son. 

Betty’s seat was in the very last row on 
a side aisle. Miss Judson told Betty to 
walk right to her seat and have Rusty 
stay with her until every one was seated. 
After that she said she would like to meet 
the brave little dog. The room was new 
to Rusty, and he very much wanted to 
smell around, but he obeyed Betty when 
she told him to lie down. 

It was natural for the children to try 
to see what Rusty did. It was very excit¬ 
ing for him to have so many to play with 
and very hard to lie quietly. When the 
children were all quiet. Miss Judson said 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 251 


that after Betty had told them the story 
of Rusty she had invited him to school 
that all of them might make his acquaint¬ 
ance. 

“ If we are all quiet, I know of no rea¬ 
son why such a well-behaved dog should 
not come to school every day,” she said. 
“ Where I have lived in the coimtry town, 
there were always some dogs that came 
with the boys and girls. Some of them 
remained in the schoolroom, while others 
waited outside to go home with their own¬ 
ers. If we do not pay too much atten¬ 
tion to Rusty until he gets used to us, I 
think we shall all like to have him with us 
regularly. Now, if Betty will bring him 
up on the platform we will have him for a 
few minutes where we all can see him. 
Then for our English lesson, we will all 
write about him.” 

When Betty got up from her seat. 


252 


RUSTY 


Rusty jumped up and followed her. As 
Betty stepped up on the platform, she mo¬ 
tioned to a chair on to which Rusty 
jumped. 

“ Please sit up and shake hands with 
Miss Judson,” said Betty. That was a 
trick her Uncle Frank had taught him. 
So well had he been trained that the per¬ 
son giving the command spoke only in an 
ordinary tone of voice. Rusty promptly 
sat up, letting his left front paw hang limp 
while he held his right one out straight. 

Miss Judson understood dogs and chil¬ 
dren. While the children laughed and 
clapped their hands, she bent over very 
solemnly to shake Rusty’s paw, then 
gently pulled one ear, as she told him she 
had heard such nice things about him that 
she hoped he would come to school often 
with his mistress. 

“ Say ‘ Thank you,’ ” commanded 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 253 


Betty. Rusty gave a little yip, which 
made the children laugh and applaud 
again. 

Perhaps,” said Miss Judson, if 
Rusty shows off his tricks now, we shall all 
know what he can do which will give us a 
little more to write about for our lesson.” 

So Betty had him sneeze, say his 
prayers, play dead dog, roll over, speak 
softly, speak very loud, and tell them it 
was bedtime by yawning. 

When Rusty had finished. Miss Judson 
said she thought it would be nice if Rusty 
would lie down on her desk. “ There we 
could all see him while we are writing 
about him,” she said. “ Do you think he 
would lie there for a few minutes, Betty? ” 
Betty was sure he would when he under¬ 
stood that she was not going to leave him 
behind. She lifted Rusty up on the desk 
where Miss Judson gave him a bit of 


254 RUSTY 

cracker she had taken from a drawer in 
her desk. She patted him, and he kissed 
her hand. Betty told him to be good and 
remain there. 

Rusty sat and watched her as she 
walked to her seat. Miss Judson gave 
him another hit of cracker, telling him to 
lie down. Rusty looked at her as if won¬ 
dering what right she had to tell him to do 
anything. She smiled at him, telling him 
again to lie down and be comfortable. In 
a minute or two he turned around three 
times, flopped down, and gave the little 
sigh he always gave when he was ready to 
have a nap. 

When the time came for recess. Rusty 
jumped to his feet, but did not try to get 
down from the desk, although he kept his 
eyes on Betty. The children passed him, 
each one speaking to him or touching him. 
But not one of them did Rusty look at. 


RUSTY GOES TO SCHOOL 255 

not even Jennie and Pauline, for he was 
keeping his eyes on Betty who was at the 
very end of the line. When she reached 
him he jumped down and leaped up 
against her. 

Miss Judson talked with Betty about 
him and about a little dog she had had 
when younger. She loved dogs, and be¬ 
lieved that every boy and girl ought to 
have one and be taught to be kind to them. 
She said she hoped Betty’s mother would 
permit Rusty to attend school often. 

Betty was sure that he would be allowed 
to come, at least some of the time, explain¬ 
ing to Miss Judson that her mother loved 
Rusty so much that she liked to have him 
with her some of the time. 

After that day, on almost every pleasant 
morning Rusty could be seen trotting 
along to school close behind Betty. Part 
of the time he slept on a corner of teach- 


256 RUSTY 

er’s desk, where Miss Judson would some¬ 
times pull one of his silky ears. The rest 
of the time he would lie in the aisle at the 
side of Betty’s desk. 

The children soon learned to pay no at¬ 
tention to him. He became such a favorite 
with them that they wanted him to come 
in the afternoons also, but Mrs. Abbott 
claimed him then. 



CHAPTER XVI 

rusty’s CHRISTMAS 

Going to school so widened Rusty’s 
acquaintance that Mrs. Abbott, returning 
one afternoon in the car with Rusty, told 
Betty that every one in the city knew their 
Rusty. She had come out of a store to 
find a lady she did not know petting 
Rusty. The lady had explained that she 
was the mother of Jimmy Williams, who 

257 











258 


RUSTY 


had told her so many stories about Rusty 
that she could not resist stopping to pet 
him. 

Knowing so many people did not bothjer 
Rusty. He liked them all, having learned 
to forgive one boy who had kicked him 
before he understood that Rusty was run¬ 
ning after his ball to carry it back. For¬ 
giving him had taken a long time, but 
Rusty had accomplished it. 

The cool weather of the early fall 
rapidly changed to the first cold days of 
approaching winter. Early one morning. 
Rusty, awakening to find himself shiver¬ 
ing, tried to snuggle down closer under 
his blanket. He aroused Betty, for, since 
coming back from camp, he had insisted 
upon sleeping almost every night on 
Betty’s bed all night instead of chang¬ 
ing to that of his big mistress when she 
retired. 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 259 

Sleepily reaching down, his little mis¬ 
tress pulled the cover closer over her pet. 
Turning over to sleep longer, she saw that 
all outdoors was white! With Christmas 
only a few days away and school closed 
for the holidays, snow was a welcome 
sight. She sat up, rubbing her eyes until 
she was wide awake. 

“Look, Rusty! Quick!” she ex¬ 
claimed. 

Rusty sat up and looked at her. Tak¬ 
ing his head in her hands, she turned him 
so that he would look out of the window. 
“ See,” she exclaimed, “ the snow has 

come! Come on. We’ll go out and play 

• *1 »> 
m it. 

Rusty sprang to the floor. With one 
shake he was ready for the fun of the day. 
But Betty had much more to do before 
she could be ready for an outdoors romp. 
Awakened so suddenly and with Betty 


260 RUSTY 

evidently in such a hurry, Rusty barked 
in his excitement. 

“ What’s wrong? ” asked Betty’s father 
from his room. “ What is Rusty bark¬ 
ing about, Betty? ” he asked anxiously. 

He sees the snow,” she replied, “ and 
* 

I’m hurrying to go out with him to see 
what he will do.” 

Mr. Abbott thought that amusing. He 
suggested that they had better eat some 
breakfast first, assuring his daughter that 
he would be honored to have her company 
at the morning meal. After a rather 
hurried breakfast, warmly dressed, Betty 
opened the front door and Rusty bounded 
down the steps. 

Of the many surprises he had experi¬ 
enced in his short life, perhaps none 
equalled the one he received when he tried 
to stop and turn on the cement sidewalk. 
Rain had fallen and frozen with the light 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 261 


snow, making the walk the slipperiest 
imaginable. Vainly he tried to dig in his 
claws as he slid sideways helplessly to¬ 
wards the closed gate, against which he 
brought up with a thump that forced a 
yelp of mingled pain and fright. 

That was Rusty’s first experience with 
snow and ice; at least, the first he could 
remember. Later, he discovered that it 
meant when his big mistress went to the 
home of a neighbor, she always put some¬ 
thing on her feet that she kept in the 
front entry. Long before then Rusty 
had learned to fetch Mr. Abbott’s slip¬ 
pers at night after dinner. He was de¬ 
lighted to get Mrs. Abbott’s rubbers for 
her. 

Opening the door to the entry she would 
seat herself on the big settle in the hall 
after asking Rusty to get her rubbers. 
Having brought them and had an ear 


262 


RUSTY 


gently pulled, he seated himself by the 
door as he waited to go out with her. He 
knew all the neighbors, especially those 
who opened the doors themselves. Most 
of them liked him, so Rusty often went 
on errands with his mistress. 

But in the winter, or when it was very 
wet, he was not allowed to enter the houses 
with her. He was at liberty either to wait 
for her or return home where, if he barked 
at the kitchen door. Cook would admit 
him—if she hadn’t freshly mopped her 
kitchen floor. If she had, he went to the 
garage, where James was always glad to 
see him whether his feet were dirty or not. 
That was one nice trait about James. He 
loved Rusty whether he was span clean 
or had just run through a mud puddle to 
make a bird fly. Making birds fly was 
great sport. 

Having helped his mistress with her 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 263 

rubbers one day, he trotted with her to the 
end of the street where she turned into the 
yard of a dear friend. Removing her 
rubbers she entered the house after telling 
Rusty that he could wait or go home to 
James. 

For a minute Rusty was undecided 
what to do. He knew it would be a long 
time before Betty would be home from 
school, James had gone somewhere with 
the car, and probably Cook had freshly 
mopped the floor and would not let him 
in. He stood up to look in the window but 
no one was in sight to say, “ Oh, let him 
come in.” 

Disheartened, he was about to return 
in an effort to persuade Cook to let him 
in when he noticed his mistress’s rubbers. 
Picking up one he raced home with it. 
Back he went and got the other. Again 
he returned but there were no more to be 


264 RUSTY 

had. But at the next house were two 
large ones. 

Those he carried, one by one, and de¬ 
posited them on his steps. By that time 
he was greatly interested in his new game. 
He scoured the neighborhood, adding 
steadily to his collection. When his mis¬ 
tress came home, picking her way care¬ 
fully through the slush, he was standing 
on the piazza very proud of his work, as 
was plain to be seen by the vigorous wag¬ 
ging of his tail and his delighted barks of 
welcome which plainly said, “See what I 
have done for you.” 

One thing that always puzzled Rusty 
was why at most unexpected moments his 
mistress would sit down wherever she was 
and laugh, wipe her eyes as if crying, as 
she called for some one to come to her. 
That’s what she did then. 

Opening the front door she called 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 265 

loudly for Mandy to come to her at once. 
Mandy waddled to the door to look where 
her mistress pointed. She raised both 
hands high in the air and Rusty was sure 
folks away off at camp could hear her 
shouts. 

With so much appreciation of his efforts 
in evidence, Rusty joined with barks of 
self-applause. But when he rushed to 
help his mistress as she started to sort 
them, he learned that he had done more 
than had been expected of him. Cook 
shut him in the kitchen. From there he 
could hear his mistress at the telephone, 
talking and laughing for a long time. She 
said that she was explaining, and that 
James would return in a few minutes. 

When James came, all the rubbers that 
Rusty had collected, with two small rubber 
boots and four arctics, were put in the 
big car which James drove from house to 


266 RUSTY 

house where he showed them to the own¬ 
ers who came out to the car laughingly to 
pick out what belonged to them. But the 
biggest pair James brought back with a 
message for Mrs. Abbott. More tele¬ 
phoning, more laughter before James 
drove away again. Upon his return he 
confided to Cook that the doctor wanted 
to buy a dog like Rusty to keep him in 
shoes and rubbers. 

Betty thought Rusty’s raid on the rub¬ 
bers of the neighborhood was a great joke. 
She told all her friends about it, explain¬ 
ing that it wasn’t stealing, because Rusty 
thought he was helping his mistress. Her 
friends agreed, but whenever they left 
their rubbers on the piazza at Betty’s 
home, as they did when they went there 
to play with Betty and Rusty, they ex¬ 
pected to find more than they had left. 

Rusty knew that he had made a mistake. 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 267 

In some way he knew that he was not ex¬ 
pected to carry rubbers from house to 
house, and except for that one time he 
never took anything until Christmas Day. 

He never had made himself sick by 
eating more of anything than was good 
for him. Of some things he was very 
fond, and would do almost anything to 
have Betty, Cook, or any one, for that ♦ 
matter, feed them to him or let him eat 
them. Cook declared that there was no 
need to wash a plate on which ice-cream 
had been, because Rusty would lick it 
cleaner than it could be washed. It didn’t 
make the least bit of difference about the 
flavor so long as it was ice-cream. Neither 
did it make any difference if the weather 
were cold or hot. Rusty would eat ice¬ 
cream any time he could get it. 

Christmas Day found Betty with, oh, 
lots of presents that kept her busy all the 


268 


RUSTY 


morning. As dinner time approached, 
Betty said that she needed one more thing 
to make her happy, and that was ice¬ 
cream. Mr. Abbott told her that if she 
wished to bundle up and go to the store 
for some, she could have it. 

Calling Rusty, Betty visited the store 
of Mr. Marsh. While he was filling the 
order she told him how fond Rusty was 
of ice-cream. Placing a little on a dish 
Mr. Marsh put it on the floor as his Christ¬ 
mas present to Rusty. The little dog 
cleaned the plate and shook hands to ex¬ 
press his thanks. With her ice-cream in 
a big carton, Betty hurried home, know¬ 
ing that dinner with the turkey and all the 
“ fixings ” must be almost ready. Rusty 
didn’t go into the house, preferring to go 
to the garage for a frolic with Rex, for 
in cold weather Rex was a good play¬ 
fellow. 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 269 

When Betty buried the carton in the 
big drift near the kitchen door to keep it 
until they were ready, no one was in sight. 
But when she went for it, the carton was 
gone. On the verge of tears at her dis- 
appointment, Betty announced that noth¬ 
ing could be meaner than to steal ice-cream 
on Christmas Day. 

Search by her father confirmed the fact 
that nothing but the hole in the snow was 
left to remind Betty of her dessert. The 
absence of the carton was pretty certain 
evidence that it had been stolen. Betty 
refused any of Cook’s plum pudding and 
left the table, calling for Rusty to tell him 
that he couldn’t have any, either. Only 
then did she remember that Rusty hadn’t 
been at table with her as he was almost 
every meal. 

Upstairs and down-cellar she called. 
But no Rusty answered. She went to the 


270 RUSTY 

front door. And there stood Rusty! He 
was shivering and shaking with the cold. 
His eyes were running. He was whining 
pitifully, and appeared so sick that Betty 
dropped on her knees in the open door¬ 
way to pick him up. But Rusty stag¬ 
gered by her to the big round register in 
the big front room from which the hot air 
was pouring. 

He stood over it and sneezed. For 
once his sneeze was not a trick. He 
couldn’t help it. Spreading his legs as 
wide as he could he put his stomach down 
on the almost hot iron of the register, 
shivering and whining as the tears con¬ 
tinued to roll from his eyes. He was a 
sick little dog. 

‘‘ I think I smell a mouse, or ice-cream, 
or something,” said Mr. Abbott as he 
stood looking at Rusty after Betty had 
called that her pet was surely dying. 


RUSTY’S CHRISTMAS 271 

Going out on the piazza he returned 
with the empty carton. On the top were 
the marks of teeth and some of the top 
had been torn off. 

“ Here’s what you brought the cream 
home in, Betty,” he said, showing it to 
her. “ And there’s where your cream is 
now, right inside that dog. He’s the thief, 
and he’s paying for it now, just as we all 
do when we eat more of anything than is 
good for us. I don’t know what we can 
do with a dog that steals ice-cream—and 
on Christmas Day, too.” 

Betty dropped on her knees, her arms 
around her pet, declaring that no one 
should scold her dog on Christmas Day, a 
day when all were supposed to forgive. 
Rusty very feebly licked her hand to thank 
her. 

Never again did Rusty lick the ice¬ 
cream dishes for Cook. He never forgot 


272 


RUSTY 


that lesson of Christmas Day, when for 
once in his life he had too much to eat. 







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